Feeder Designs Can Limit Hay Waste
Hay Feeder Designs Can Improve Livestock Operation's Profitability
OMAHA (DTN) -- Feeding supplemental forage to cattle can be quite expensive. While the cost of hay has been down significantly from a year ago, hay costs still make up a large portion of cattle producers' input costs.
Reducing hay waste is one method cattle producers can use to limit their cost associated with feeding forages. There are many different hay feeder designs to select from and choosing the right one can help reduce hay waste.
FEEDER DESIGNS MEANT TO SAVE HAY
Kansas State University Beef Production Systems Scientist Emma Briggs wrote in a recent news release that finding the right hay feeder will save hay and improve an operation's efficiency and profitability.(https://enewsletters.k-state.edu/…)
"Everyone has different needs," she wrote. "But how you feed your hay can significantly impact how much forage you feed during the winter, as well as how much can get wasted due to trampling or other environmental factors."
Briggs said many cattle producers will often use open-bottom hay rings to feed hay. This design is typically light and easy to move from place to place. The downside to this design, however, is that the unobstructed foundation contributes to a large partition of hay never making it past the animal's mouth.
Open-bottom feeders make it easy for cattle to pull hay out, which leads to increased waste. Research found that 16%-21% of the original forage weight can be wasted because of cattle trampling the hay, she said.
There are some modifications that can be done to this hay feeder design, according to Briggs. One is to enclose the bottom by welding a 16- to 18-inch-tall piece of sheet metal to the base of the open feeder. This will help to maintain the hay in the feeder.
"Researchers have seen about a 39% reduction in hay squandering compared to the open-bottom design," she said. "Some studies say that only around 12% of the original bale weight get misused."
Another way to limit hay losses when feeding hay is to purchase a cone or basket feeder to go inside the ring feeder. This design keeps the bale suspended or at the very least keeps the upper third of the bale restricted in a more upright position, Briggs wrote. Hay waste with this design could be as little as 2%-5% of the total forage weight in some cases.
The downside of the cone or basket feeder is that it weighs more than just a ring bale feeder, making it more difficult to move around. Additionally, weaned calves might have some issues being able to reach into these feeders.
ANOTHER FEEDING METHOD -- FIND A HILL
Briggs said another hay feeding strategy that does not even require a feeder -- but does require a hill -- is to unroll bales to feed the forage.
"If you have the land and the resources to do so, unrolling can be a good option," Briggs said. "But you need to ensure that you're only unrolling enough to where the cattle can clean up everything that you provide within the first 12 hours, or else that will likely get converted to bedding."
HIGH HAY FEED COSTS MATTER
Hay costs make up a considerable amount of many cattle operation input budgets, which is why it's important to minimize the amount that goes to waste.
According to an Oklahoma State University news release, total feed costs excluding pasture averaged $426 per cow on a 152-head ranching operation. (https://extension.okstate.edu/…) This data was from the Center for Farm Financial Management (CFFM) report.
Another study from Kansas showed feed costs per cow averaged $343 per head. The most profitable one-third of the operations had $145 per cow lower feed costs compared to the least profitable one-third of the operations in the study.
CFFM data also showed harvested forage accounts for 65% of the non-pasture feed costs, according to Oklahoma State Extension.
"Clearly, feed costs represent a major portion of annual costs in a beef cow-calf enterprise," the OSU report stated.
For more on hay costs, see https://www.dtnpf.com/….
Russ Quinn can be reached at Russ.Quinn@dtn.com
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