Saturday, December 9, 2017

How much Hay to feed?

"The more, the better!" My enthusiastic, capitalist spirit immediately responds. "I'll make more of it!"

But, seriously, in the small bales business, you meet a lot of new people. A few of those people are green and learning.  How much hay to feed is a very common concern.

The first consideration is the quality of hay.  It stands to reason that the better the Relative Feed Value and the higher the percentage of Total Digestive Nutrients, the lesser the quantity is needed.  Hay quality can vary widely from farmers to farmers, field to field, and cutting to cutting. There are scientific methods for measuring quality, but most people are just looking for general guidelines.  I have over a decade worth of experience feeding cattle, horses, and sheeps.

Horse nutrition is the most complex and intimidating.  There are volumes of books on the subject. Mistakes are expensive. I will only share the most basic observations of horse feeding and recommend further study on the subject.

I have more confidence with sharing tips on feeding cows, sheeps, and goats.  The starting point that I recommend is 5% of bodyweight.  It's easy math and gets you in the ballpark.  Take a 100# ewe for example. 10% is 10#, just move the decimal then split it in half.  So, 5# would be my daily ration to start with.

I recommend feeding twice a day, so you would feed half of the daily ration in the morning and the other half in the evening. The reduction of waste over feeding once a day is significant enough to warrant the extra effort.

When herbivores are fed a large quantity, they pick through it to get their full of the sweetest stuff.  When they come back later to eat again, a lot of the good feed left is soiled and they will not eat it.  In those instances, their fiber intake suffers and you have to feed more to make up for the waste.

I stress 5% as a good start, because of all the other variables.  The weather, the animal health, alternative food stuff, supplements, and hay quality are all factors.  The good news is that you can observe your animals' behaviors as indicators to offer more hay or taper back.

What is the interest at feeding time?  Are they overly enthusiastic?  Are their feeders empty?  Do they stay in one feeding spot or hunt around?  All of those observations can tell you about how much you are feeding. Horses, however, are unique in this aspect.

A horse's favorite pastime is eating.  They will eat all day, every day out of boredom.  Left alone in a sufficient pasture, they will eventually turn it into a nuclear waste land.  1) Don't mistake a horse's enthusiasm as hunger. 2) Don't judge their clean feeder as insufficient. 3) Volume by body weight and body conditioning are probably your best indicators.

Cows, sheeps, and goats won't eat all day long.  They stop when they are satiated and will lay down, chew cud, and meditate. It typically takes about four hours out of the day for them to get their full.  If you are feeding twice a day, you should see them losing interest after a couple of hours each time. If they are taking longer, that should be considered with other indicators that you may not be feeding enough.