Hay

[DairyNerd]

This is a slightly bizarre and definitely pointless thread but putting hay out yesterday for our dry cows and thinking what a fantastic feed it is; no plastic, no effluent, easy as pie to handle and transport, rumen friendly, cows love it.

Got me wondering; does anyone know of anyone still operating an AYR dairy just on hay and cake through the winter?

My grandparents had a dairy in North Shropshire until the late 70's, according to my Nan never more than 25 cows in a shippon, grew their own barley and made all the straw they needed in little bales for the dairy and beef, only ever made little bale hay, never made silage, virtually no slurry, no bulk tank (they stopped when churns went).

In some ways it was a very simple system though inefficient by todays standards, very little machinery and capital expenditure costs; no clamp, no slurry pit, not even a parlour; just a vacuum line in the shippon, a couple of movable units and some churns! I find it very interesting how much times have changed in a relatively short time frame, much for the better granted.

 

[Cows 'n grass]

We are all loose housed and feed a lot of hay to dry cows. It works but I have 1500sqm of barns that I'm not allowed to keep stock in any more. Those barns are packed to the eaves (they're pretty low eaves) with hay and straw.

I will probably lose those barns in the end and when I do I think that will make silage clamps and slurry stores look good value.

 

[ajcc]

I like hay over bale silage, mainly hate silage wrap, mud, effluent, water etc. Bad this year. Out wintering beef cows hay much better maintenance feed. . . but making it and storing it can be problematic!

 

[killie_cowboy]

Hay is class but getting it is the bother and you will loose some of your nutrients in the making of it. Having said that, we have never tested the hay.

 

[som farmer]

having bought a lot of fodder, for the dairy, hay is the easiest to transport.

what we found when feeding hay, to the dairy, was m solids shot up, and they liked it.

so, we will make hay, in preference to wrap, if we can, usually 2nd cut. Fed through the keenan, bit bulky, but a good source of roughage, better than adding straw.

 

[Jdunn55]

Was just scrolling through diamond genetics website this evening and noticed this, it's definitely far more common on the continent than here, I just can't work out why they can get cattle to grow/milk off it and yet if I tried it I'd struggle to get maintenance let alone any litres from it...!

 

[swedish red]

This is a slightly bizarre and definitely pointless thread but putting hay out yesterday for our dry cows and thinking what a fantastic feed it is; no plastic, no effluent, easy as pie to handle and transport, rumen friendly, cows love it.

Got me wondering; does anyone know of anyone still operating an AYR dairy just on hay and cake through the winter?

My grandparents had a dairy in North Shropshire until the late 70's, according to my Nan never more than 25 cows in a shippon, grew their own barley and made all the straw they needed in little bales for the dairy and beef, only ever made little bale hay, never made silage, virtually no slurry, no bulk tank (they stopped when churns went).

In some ways it was a very simple system though inefficient by todays standards, very little machinery and capital expenditure costs; no clamp, no slurry pit, not even a parlour; just a vacuum line in the shippon, a couple of movable units and some churns! I find it very interesting how much times have changed in a relatively short time frame, much for the better granted.

Many years ago I worked for Allen Chilton with his sand city AA herd.
We only fed hay , with a bit of fodder beet and barley and finished great cattle for Waitrose.

 

[som farmer]

Was just scrolling through diamond genetics website this evening and noticed this, it's definitely far more common on the continent than here, I just can't work out why they can get cattle to grow/milk off it and yet if I tried it I'd struggle to get maintenance let alone any litres from it...!
View attachment 1153295View attachment 1153297

back in the last century, we used to use a system called, hay equivalent, to ration dairy cows.

That was modern then. At college, big new idea, barn dried hay......... Local farmer invested in a grass drying plant.

good hay is a good feed, trouble is getting consistently good hay. All those little bales of hay....... We used to put 1/4 bale of hay, with a big scoop of wet sugar beet shreds, in front of each cow, when we tied them up.

times change, we move on, hay was difficult to keep consistent, silage a lot easier to maintain a constant ration. The silage we made then, was very different to how we do today.

but good hay, was, and still is, a quality feed, just unreliable to make, in the UK weather. Plenty is fed in more 'suitable' climates, a lot of ground hay is fed in the States, if it was easy to make, we would make more use of it.

 

[JockCroft]

I prefer Hay for ewes. Only on a small scale, make about 18 acres a year with own equipment (old) been lucky with weather last good few years. If got caught with wet spell there is the option to get a contractor to wrap.

Drawbacks - needs o roof over. Always end up with 15 or 20 stacked and covered , expect wastage. Have 5 x 4 baler so normal feed rings are a pain, fitted extension pieces but still a pain. The other thing is harvest mite, find ewes start rubbing soon after start feeding, and wrestling feedrings closing itch self.

Considering using Balesafe next year if only for mites.

Capital cost. Mower 900, tedder 550, Acrobat 120, baler 180, most covered at least 10 years. Twine cost £20 every second year.

If wrapped probably 50 bales at 8 so £400 year. Hay, Baler and twine cost as need mower and tedder for wrap.

Dont miss the smell from wrapped or the waste plastic.

All it needs is good weather and a roof.

 

[Whitepeak]

Hay is very common in Europe. Virtually all hay on the farms I saw in Switzerland, but a lot is barn dried.
Have heard that some European cheese contracts insist on hay as silage can taint the milk effecting the taste of the cheese.
Hay in the US and Canada is very different than here, it's dried so rapidly without much turning that it's as green as the day it was cut! They also make a lot of alfalfa/Lucerne hay.

 

[Devil's advocate]

Was just scrolling through diamond genetics website this evening and noticed this, it's definitely far more common on the continent than here, I just can't work out why they can get cattle to grow/milk off it and yet if I tried it I'd struggle to get maintenance let alone any litres from it...!
View attachment 1153295View attachment 1153297

I think it is barn dried loose hay, they handle it with over head cranes & dry it with dehumdified air.

 

[Devil's advocate]

This is a slightly bizarre and definitely pointless thread but putting hay out yesterday for our dry cows and thinking what a fantastic feed it is; no plastic, no effluent, easy as pie to handle and transport, rumen friendly, cows love it.

Got me wondering; does anyone know of anyone still operating an AYR dairy just on hay and cake through the winter?

My grandparents had a dairy in North Shropshire until the late 70's, according to my Nan never more than 25 cows in a shippon, grew their own barley and made all the straw they needed in little bales for the dairy and beef, only ever made little bale hay, never made silage, virtually no slurry, no bulk tank (they stopped when churns went).

In some ways it was a very simple system though inefficient by todays standards, very little machinery and capital expenditure costs; no clamp, no slurry pit, not even a parlour; just a vacuum line in the shippon, a couple of movable units and some churns! I find it very interesting how much times have changed in a relatively short time frame, much for the better granted.

I deliver to a farm similar to above, but pipeline to bulk tank.

Red Tractor trying to shut them down.

 

[DairyNerd]

I deliver to a farm similar to above, but pipeline to bulk tank.

Red Tractor trying to shut them down.

For what reason?

 

[Jsmith2211]

For what reason?

Because dead tractor is an utter joke

 

[FonterraFarmer]

This is a slightly bizarre and definitely pointless thread but putting hay out yesterday for our dry cows and thinking what a fantastic feed it is; no plastic, no effluent, easy as pie to handle and transport, rumen friendly, cows love it.

Got me wondering; does anyone know of anyone still operating an AYR dairy just on hay and cake through the winter?

My grandparents had a dairy in North Shropshire until the late 70's, according to my Nan never more than 25 cows in a shippon, grew their own barley and made all the straw they needed in little bales for the dairy and beef, only ever made little bale hay, never made silage, virtually no slurry, no bulk tank (they stopped when churns went).

In some ways it was a very simple system though inefficient by todays standards, very little machinery and capital expenditure costs; no clamp, no slurry pit, not even a parlour; just a vacuum line in the shippon, a couple of movable units and some churns! I find it very interesting how much times have changed in a relatively short time frame, much for the better granted.

Good hay is better than shít silage....

 

[yoki]

There was a guy who's name I can't remember unfortunately, but he was the most referenced guy in ruminant nutrition in the UK during the feeding developments of the late 60's, 70's, and early 80's.

He contended that silage was absolutely the worst feed that could be given to ruminants due to it's acidity and that hay, while generally analytically inferior, performed in practice much higher than analysis would suggest while silage done the opposite. This was due to hay allowing the rumen to function much more normally whereas silage created lots of problems.

But I guess what ultimately killed off widespread use of hay was the constant up-scaling of the farms themselves which was much easier with silage than with hay making.

Now I only feed hay unless, like last year, I had to wrap something to get it saved. Even then it'll be kept as a standby and not used unless entirely necessary.

 

[DairyNerd]

There was a guy who's name I can't remember unfortunately, but he was the most referenced guy in ruminant nutrition in the UK during the feeding developments of the late 60's, 70's, and early 80's.

He contended that silage was absolutely the worst feed that could be given to ruminants due to it's acidity and that hay, while generally analytically inferior, performed in practice much higher than analysis would suggest while silage done the opposite. This was due to hay allowing the rumen to function much more normally whereas silage created lots of problems.

But I guess what ultimately killed off widespread use of hay was the constant up-scaling of the farms themselves which was much easier with silage than with hay making.

Now I only feed hay unless, like last year, I had to wrap something to get it saved. Even then it'll be kept as a standby and not used unless entirely necessary.

Are you beef or dairy? I agree with a lot of what you say. I mean you won't ever compete with silage for milk but hay is dirt cheap to buy in comparison if you buy in forage. I worked our current milkers ration as if it was all bought in and compared it to feeding bought in hay and an extra 3kg cake which would supply similar energy, there isn't a lot in it!

 

[Deereone]

Not a "pointless" thread at all it is good to be reminded that there are other ways of doing things so we don't get set in our ways.

 

[killie_cowboy]

Good hay is better than shít silage....

Well if you can't get decent silage then you're gonna struggle to get good hay...

 

[BRB John]

It's not strictly plastics free unless your using hemp twine...
Hay I think would be the first option if people could be sure they would get the weather and they had the shed space for it?
I can only dream how easy some farmers have it with short winters warm hay friendly summers and plenty of naturally well drained ground to over winter stock on.
Jammy so and so's