Prior to winter, it is wise to evaluate your feed inventory. Check hay stores and quality and then make a feeding plan. If you plan to feed any grains or additional supplements, make sure you have sufficient inventory available to carry the herd through the entire winter. Prices on these feedstuffs can often be locked in early in the season. This may come with a significant savings as prices often rise as the winter drones on.

When making a feeding plan, consider the body condition and stage of production of the animals to be fed. I prefer to stockpile grass pastures in the fall (October and November) and feed hay to these animals in a small pasture through these months. These animals will gain/maintain weight easily during this time because it is not as cold as it is later in the winter. I recommend feeding cattle through early December and then after a solid frost or two, turn the cattle into your stockpiled pastures. This allows many to avoid heavy feeding during the Christmas season and the cattle will efficiently utilize grass pastures. Plan to feed the best quality hays to your youngest animals. Give the best to the first-calf heifers and yearling replacement animals. Monitor body condition at least monthly and adjust feed accordingly.

If grains are being used, feed in a trough and feed at no more than 0.5-1% of body weight. Many cows will do well being fed 2-4 pounds of grain per day. In recent years, I have begun feeding whole cotton seed at 2 pounds per head per day. This can be an extremely inexpensive energy source for cows on a hay/pasture diet. I have found no adverse reproductive or other side effects from this feed combination. Remember that beef cattle in our climate are usually energy deficient if they are fed an average grass hay. Rarely is this hay so protein deficient that cattle suffer. Avoid trying to feed urea and other “protein blocks” to cattle on very poor hays. The cattle will be so energy deficient on this high protein diet that they will actually lose weight. The high protein/low energy diet is equivalent to the “Bovine Atkins diet.” I prefer to feed 1-2 pounds of flaked corn or range cubes to each cow while feeding average quality hay. This will increase intake of the hay and improve its utilization by the cow. Do not feed more than 6 pounds of grain to mature cows on a forage diet. This will decrease intake of hays and decrease the cow’s ability to digest the hay because her rumen will become too acidic.

Feel free to call for an individual feeding consult and we all hope for an easy winter.