Dexter Cattle For Sale Discussion Board

As I am very new to keeping Dexters, only started this year, I was wondering how much hay I should allow for feeding over winter.I will only be having the small rectangular bales ,and will be keeping the animals in, as I dont want them to poach the ground as I only have limited grazing.
Thanks
John

Where abouts are you John?

John, One large round bale of haylage (350-400kg?) will last 30 of my dexters one day. That's ad lib, no other feed. Hay doesn't normally last quite as long IMO but I haven't got a figure....something like 20% more is used?

If it's poor quality, they can use a lot more as most goes on the floor, especially if they know there's some good stuff around .

Small bales of hay can vary a lot in weight, anything from 16-18kg up to 40.

Thanks Clive, cut my 2 acre field yesterday,and bailing later in the week.As its my only field for winter feed I was trying to estimate how much I will need to buy in.
Thanks
John

Redruth

Sorry, forgot to say that one of our adult cows will eat about 4 or 5 round bales over the winter. They are in for about 5-6 months. I'm not certain about the weight of the round bales by the way, but seems about right.

There are so many factors e.g. how long you keep them out for, weight of bales etc., but I aim to secure half a bale per day per animal for November/December/January/February and then take my chances if I have to get any more in. However, mine are out all year and do have access to any remaining/new grass before/after this period.

When it come to feeding, if I see them wasting any then it gets reduced and if they are very excitable/vocal when I arrive then they need more.

Our four were in from november to the beginning of march and ate two of the rectagular bales between them per day. They also ate some of the straw each time we put fresh stuff in.They came out looking well on it.

Helen's small bale figures roughly agree with my big round bale usage. If you say an average small bale is about 22-27kg and they eat half of one a day each, that's about 11-13 kg's a day.