Cost Saving Cattle Feeders
You see them throughout ranch country but are they cost effective? I’m Susan Allen, stay tuned on Open Range to find out. Given the fact that a pregnant cow consumes nearly 30 lbs of hay each day it is easy to see how winter feeding becomes the largest single cost on a cow-calf operation. Thus a operator estimates 35-40 pounds of hay a day per cow. Why? Cows can be ‘pig’s when eating so waste must be figured in . Improving the bottom line often can mean better feeding techniques. One cost effective method is to use round feeders rather then tossing hay on the ground. The University of Missouri complied research on feeding and found that allowing cattle to eat free choice from large round bales without a feeding structure produced 43 percent waste . If fed hay a week at a time wasted hay still hovered at forty percent. Obviously feeding cattle daily was optimal, reducing feed losses to twelve percent, but it’s not always practical. Switching to a round feeder cuts 80 percent of waste. Researchers at MichiganState found that ring and ring/cone type feeders were the best style resulting in only 4.5 percent waste while trailer type feeders produced nearly 11 and a half percent. The most wasteful cattle feeder was the cradle style at 15 percent . When it comes to raising cattle nothings ever perfect, but improving some things even the style of feeder can help “perfect” an operation. I’m Susan Allen .
