08/13/08 Winter windrow

I know it's still summer, but fall and winter are just around the corner and that could mean supplementary feeding for your livestock. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be back in one minute with a little different way to winter feed forges. Unless you are one of the lucky producers who don't have to winter feed, you have already put up hay or are still putting away extra forage for those cold months. Maybe you have to buy hay like we do and are thinking about that job already. Either way somebody is going to move a lot of hay to get it ready to feed. I just read two articles about Larry Wagner, his wife, veterinarian Julie Williams-Wagner from Pukwana, S.D. and the way they winter feed cattle. Wagner cuts intermediate wheat grass in late June and has it in the field in windrows to feed in December and January. The feeding is controlled by an electric fence placed down the middle of one windrow at a time. The wheat grass is cut so about six or eight inches of stubble remain to keep the hay off the ground. As long as snow covering doesn't crust, cattle will work through as much as eighteen inches to the feed. I've always heard this method works best in a cold, dry environment, but Wagner says his hay received seventeen inches of rain last year while in the windrow, turned brown, lost very little nutrients, and the cattle ate it all. Wagner first tried windrow grazing when he couldn't get some large windrows baled. If you raise your own hay, it might be interesting to experiment with a small amount for this winter. I'm Jeff Keane. Western Farmer-Stockman August 2008