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Winter Feeding Mistakes

Winter weather and livestock feeding mistakes go together like snow and ice. But most disasters can be prevented. Here are 10 cattle feeding foul-ups and their solutions:

1. Waiting too late to buy hay. As winter drags on the supply of high-quality hay dwindles and costs rise.
Solution: Buy winter feed early.

2. Storing hay improperly. Up to 20% of a round bale is wasted if it's not wrapped or stored under a roof.
Solution: Build hay-storage facilities.

3. Providing insufficient hay-feeding space. If space is limited, aggressive cows keep timid animals from eating adequate hay.
Solution: If you don't have enough feeder space, unroll round bales to distribute hay for all animals.

4. Failing to anticipate winter storms.
Solution: Before a storm hits, place bales of hay around pasture edges and protect the hay with temporary electric fences until needed.

5. Failing to test feeds after droughts.
Solution: Send feed samples to a laboratory for nitrate tests.

6. Permitting toxic weeds to grow in hay fields.
Solution: Control pasture weeds. Observe herbicide label restrictions for hay harvest.

7. Delaying harvest until forage is too mature.
Solution: Harvest hay in boot stage to produce high-quality forage.

8. Allowing hay to receive rainfall in the field, lowering protein content.
Solution: Time harvests to match peak forage quality with good drying weather. Use hay tedders to speed up drying or consider wrapping equipment to make baled silage.

9. Forgetting to clean up feeding sites as winter ends. Decaying hay provides breeding grounds for stable flies.
Solution: Remove old hay, disk and reseed feeding areas.

10. Failing to test hay. Solution: Send hay-bale core samples to a testing laboratory. "We've had cattle starve to death with full bellies," says Paul Walker, Extension livestock agent of Alamance County, N.C. "They received plenty of hay, but it wasn't good enough to meet their nutritional needs." Walker has sent hay samples that tested 9 to 14% protein to the North Carolina Department of Agriculture lab. The higher level is adequate for mature beef cows. But the lowest level requires protein and energy supplemental feed.