Be sure to also check out Part 1 and Part 2 of our NEW 3-Part Blog Series on Testing and Measuring the Quality of your Cattle’s Winter Hay Formula for Calculating Winter Hay Needs for Beef Cattle Before you can calculate your winter hay needs, you need to gather some information first. Make sure you have the below information first: # of cattle you are feedingaverage … [Read more...] about How to Calculate Hay Needs for Beef Cattle during the Winter
Hay-making and Feeding
Raising Beef Cattle in Brutal Winter Conditions and Sticking to the Routine
Hello from windy, northern Maine! The wind has been whipping through our area like a bull on a mission during the breeding season. ha! We have had wind gusts up to 50 mph, with the potential for wind chill to reach -40 F today. It makes a person want to hunker down and hibernate for the day. Hiding is not an option when you operate a farm or ranch, even during the … [Read more...] about Raising Beef Cattle in Brutal Winter Conditions and Sticking to the Routine
On the Cattle Farm – Cold, Snowy Winter 2018-2019 Update
It has been a while since our last post on Cattle Starter. We are still keeping very busy with our cattle farm. We have many goals for our farm operation in 2019 and one of those goals is to keep current with our Cattle Starter blog. When we first started Cattle Starter, we were intent on having a blog that was very heavy on beef cattle information and very light on personal … [Read more...] about On the Cattle Farm – Cold, Snowy Winter 2018-2019 Update
Kick the Hay Habit: Book Review
Kick the Hay HabitJim Gerrish2010, Green Park Press Hay is far and away the greatest cost to a cow-calf operation, so anything we can do to reduce the amount of hay feeding in our operations will save us big money. Jim Gerrish challenges all of the mainstream ideas of cattle operations when it comes to feeding hay. Gerrish grew up in a custom hay business, and through his … [Read more...] about Kick the Hay Habit: Book Review
Winter Hay Bale Grazing: Part 4 of 4
We round out our blog series on winter hay bale grazing with lessons learned and thoughts for next winter. See the links below for earlier parts in the series: Winter Hay Bale Grazing Part 1 of 4 Winter Hay Bale Grazing Part 2 of 4 Winter Hay Bale Grazing Part 3 of 4 Lessons Learned This was our first winter implementing hay bale grazing. We were pleasantly surprised at … [Read more...] about Winter Hay Bale Grazing: Part 4 of 4