MB, Canada | Kylidge McNally - 1/16/2024 11:09
Some good ideas in this thread. If you run some numbers on feeding hay for 6 months of the year (many people don`t) you`ll realize there might be cheaper ways to winter a cow. Extending our grazing days is going to be a major way to cut costs.
I am also going to pick on the prairies and say that the 25 year old hayfields need to go, they aren`t profitable.
I would challenge the notion that old hayfields need to go. They simply need to be managed--manured or given other fertilizer based on soil tests, levelled, maybe even sod-seeded with some new species. The tendency is to beat on hayfields until they're not producing, then dig them up, fertilize them, and put them into greenfeed which usually grows a good crop. Then they're planted to hay again, fertilized accordingly, and those hay crops are good for 3 or 4 years. The reason why the crops are good for those 5 years isn't magic, it's simply because they're being managed rather than treated like a pasture where you repeatedly remove all the biomass. |
Re: Low cost producer tips
