Superb comment! I was watching this trying to figure out a way to get one of these big bales down a very steep hill to where I'm moving my goats, figured I could leave it up top and take pieces when I saw that part in the video. However, chainsawing a bale of hay? Perfect! Made my farmsteading routine so much easier!
Thanks for sharing. I think I’m gonna try this soon and see if we can save some cash. We’ve been buying small bales for $10 each…feeding one per day eesh
In my area for decades that I've been around and before and till now; we don't have ""square baills They are Rectangular!"" And some make now days round balls also! Few &far between!
Yeah, it's strange how they call them square bales when they're all rectangular! My best guess is that the flakes you pull off the bales generally are square which might be where the name comes form. Appreciate the comment and thanks for watching!
We don't use a hay ring at the moment. The bales are in the barn and we just peel flakes off the round bale, stuff them in a cart, and wheel a cart full at a time out to our cows. It works for just a couple cows and managing without a tractor. Thanks for watching!
You mentioned you feed one load of hay in the morning and evening. How do you know that’s the right amount of feed? Like what are you looking for to determine that?
Great question! So I just start with what seems like an appropriate amount and adjust from there. If there's hay leftover on the ground when the next feeding comes around, I might decrease a bit assuming they had their fill and there was extra. If I didn't give them enough they definitely let me know. Sometimes they'll just eat through it so rapidly that I know it wasn't enough. Other times they'll start bellowing and act agitated, or be aggressive toward food when the next feeding comes around. Those are usually good signs to increase the amount of hay a bit until they're content. And with our milk cow, monitoring is really easy - when her milk supply drops, it's often a sign she's hungry and not getting enough food. I've read with cows they generally need to intake between 1.6-2% of their body weight in hay/forage per day. That's hard to eyeball with feeding from a round bale but gives you a rough idea. Their intake needs can also change depending on the weather. Sometimes during really cold stretches I'll bring out a 3rd cart of hay midday to make sure they're getting enough. Hope that helps and thanks for watching!
@@FromScratchFarmstead do you feed your milk cow grain too? If so please share which brand. We use a nongmo feed from tractor supply but interested to see what others are feeding
@@Teshuva_Tony We did initially, but we now stopped and only do hay. Her mood improved tremendously once we cut out the grains. She looks a little on the thin side but has been very healthy overall. You might have to drive a bit, but sometimes you can find grain mills or distributers near you that make more custom mixes and offer a lot of organic/non-gmo options. When we were up west central WI we found a small organic grain place that was affordable and good quality stuff. You might even be able to find a grain farmer that can sell direct. Just some thoughts.
Oh boy, I feel for you. That's a lot of money! We're in northern Illinois. Hay is pretty abundant here, which is why it's so affordable. I think a lot of it actually gets shipped to other parts of the country where it's harder to come by. Thanks for watching!
