*8 Putting my cow on grass

[sweetjoy]

Hi all,

We bought Faith in the fall and she was raised all her life mainly on alfalfa hay. We kept her on hay all winter and now that the grass is up and going strong, I expected her to eat it up. But she isn't eating the pasture very well and in fact she isn't eating the hay well either, which I am not sure if it's because it's not great hay or just because she has grass too. She wants to eat the hay when we give it to her but wastes a lot of it. All our good hay burned up in a fire so we had to buy new stuff in April, which meant it was last year's hay and even though we tried to get good quality hay considering, I am not sure it's great hay. Probably just acceptable hay.

She looks good to everyone I have asked, she's not thin and her baby is growing well (she's perfectly round from the front/rear view).

My question is, should I expect to just take her off hay when the grass is up? How do I evaluate the quality of my pasture? Our pasture is small, somewhere between 1/3-1/2 acre, but dense. She does eat is some, but she's definitely not keeping it down and is still interested in hay. We do have a lot of sheet grass out there, and I would like to get the pasture more suited to a milk cow, but I am not sure what means.

I know this is kind of a feed question, but I hoped it was ok to post it here because it's about our family cow and basic management (and my lack of basic know-how!).

Also, she is due in about a month, and we've dried her off. All our grain was also destroyed in the fire, and since we dried her up at that point too, I haven't been graining her for about a month either.

Thanks all,
Sara

[Shawn]

First let me say, I'm sorry to hear you had a fire. Hope you're ok, at least as can be after such happenings.

Pasture questions. My first thought is what's growing in your pasture. There are many things cows won't eat, so do you have mostly grass, weeds, clovers?? Maybe there's not enough actual grass there for her.
I find that my cows always enjoy a little hay with their pasture grass. It seems to "balance" their systems and keeps them from getting soooo runny. That said, I'm not talking about straight alfalfa hay. I only feed that when my cow is lactating. I am talking about brome or whatever is similar in your area, a high protein hay.

If her condition is good she shouldn't need grain during the dry time. I would arrange to have some for her by calving though, as most heavy producers need grain during lactation to maintain condition.

I hope this answers some of your questions. Do you have pics you could post of your cow? we'd love to see her. Also might help to have some close up pics of your pasture to see what you've got growing there.
Shawn

[simone947]

we still have hay out on the pasture, but the girls pretty much are ignoring it now. its been a week and i haven't had to get hay yet. woohoo!

[Nonesuch Melissa]

I just recently brought home a cow who did not graze.... since 9 other cows are tearing into the grass out there like crazy I have to assume it's her... and before that I had one who turned up her nose at alfalfa... I guess they are kind of like us and like what they are used to... but it only takes a while and they learn to love whatever you are offering.

We always offer a little excellent quality hay to round things out and keep the pies firm.

[Jenn]

If you are going to need to grain her during lactation to keep her weight on, I would start now at a low level(a month ahead). Calving is stressful enough without making sudden feed changes.
-Jenn

[sweetjoy]

Thank you for your input (and condolences on the barn). I will post some photos below to get your thoughts about the quality of the pasture. Some of it seems good. Some of it has a lot of sheet grass in it. Do cows eat sheet grass? I would say as a whole, it's about 60% good green grass, then about 25% sheet grass, and the rest various weeds and some alfalfa (I think). How do I introduce better quality grass without having till up the whole area, or is that the only way to do it?

How do you offer just a little hay, or know if you are offering enough hay? Will cows prefer to eat grass, or will some eat only hay if it's available in enough quantity? Or does this really depend on the cow? I prefer she eat as much grass as possible, because it's free! But I don't mind offering a little hay, I just don't want to underfeed her. She is a bit picky, I think.

I do want to get some grain on hand, and could start offering some to her, just so it's not a dramatic change in diet after calving. In what quantities should I reintroduce it? We were giving a #10 can full at each milking before.

I don't think she is a high producer, maybe she will be at 2.5-3 gallons after she freshens. Are there other things I should feed her to help her have better production at that point?

I got to looking at the pasture closer when I went out to take pics, and I think we ought to clean out her patties and she might eat it better. I noticed she is eating around them pretty good and I remember Joann talking about that in her book (that on a small pasture a person needs to clean up more often).

So the pasture is in 3 sections.


Shot at 2009-05-21
Here is a view of one section, the one I turned her out on today


Shot at 2009-05-21
then a closeup of that same section,


Shot at 2009-05-21
a view of the second section, this one has the sheet grass in it


Shot at 2009-05-21
and a closeup of that section.


Shot at 2009-05-21
Then a view of the one she has been on (I didn't get a close-up of the last one).

[sweetjoy]

Oh and here is a shot of the cow too!


Shot at 2009-05-18

[catherine]

Our Milking Devons were raised on just hay, as they were almost all born during that awful drought in the SE in 2007. When they arrived in our pasture, only the one older cow knew what real grass was! They mulled around the paddock, checking out the water trough, etc. but didn't eat anything until we tossed in a few bales of hay, and then they chowed down! It took them a week or two to really begin to eat the grass, but we just gradually threw less and less hay and they made the transition just fine. I'm sure your girl will, too.

[chaparra72]

I too think it has a lot to do with the fact that she was on hay all her life, it will probably take some time for her to get the hang of grazing. I am trying to teach our 6 month old heifer to graze, as she was born in Dec., so no opportunities for that until now. She had no interest a few weeks ago, didn't know what it was really. Yesterday, I noticed she was eating it pretty good, so she is learning!

Your girl is beautiful! She has a lovely face, and she is DEFINATELY not thin in the least. What breed is she? She looks like she has a jersey head.

I too am sorry to hear about your fire, I hope you recover quickly.

[sweetjoy]

She is 1/2 mini-jersey, 1/2 dexter. Thanks, glad you like her! She's growing on me as she warms up to me.

Does she look overweight or in the "good" range?

[blessedfarm]

Good thread. Molly has been on bare pasture all her life, and hay, so we may have to teach her how to graze, too! Never thought that was something I'd have to teach her!

Your girl is GORGEOUS! I hope to bree Molly to a Mini Jersy some day, and have something like this as a second, or our next heifer.