Post by Lannie on Apr 30, 2007 14:30:56 GMT -5
This is going to sound silly, but remember, Bandit is only the second cow that I've stood next to in my life. I've seen them at a distance in pastures, and I've seen pictures, but only touched two, including her.
So, I've been wondering if she's getting too fat because there's no dip in front of her hipbone. I can feel her hipbone, and I can feel a slight depression in front of it (still covered with winter coat yet), but I was reading some stuff on bloat and she fits the description, even though I know she's not bloating.
Is it the Hereford in her that makes her so "beefy" or is it just because she's young? Rich tells me I spoil her too much, but my spoiling now consists of scratches only. I do give her 1/2 of a 3 lb. coffee can of alfalfa pellets in the morning when I feed the horses, and every evening she gets a couple of flakes of grass hay and one skinny flake of alfalfa when I put her in her pen for the night. Sometimes I don't put out more grass hay because there's plenty still there. Otherwise, she's just eating pasture.
This morning when I went out to let her out, I saw that she hadn't touched her grass hay - the flakes were still intact. Although of course there was no trace of the alfalfa. The grass is growing fast, though, including the grass in her corral, so I would assume she'd eat that before she'd want to have any dry old hay.
Does what I'm doing sound reasonable? Or should I cut out the alfalfa completely (pellets and hay)? There just isn't enough of that to make a difference, in my mind, but I could be wrong. I'd like to continue feeding that alfalfa flake in the evening because that's how I get her to come in at night. She sees me holding that flake up, and no matter where she is out in the pasture, she comes running. If I didn't have that, she'd probably stay out all night, which I guess would be fine, but I'm trying to get her into a routine of coming in at night, for the times when I'll NEED to have her come in.
~Lannie
So, I've been wondering if she's getting too fat because there's no dip in front of her hipbone. I can feel her hipbone, and I can feel a slight depression in front of it (still covered with winter coat yet), but I was reading some stuff on bloat and she fits the description, even though I know she's not bloating.
Is it the Hereford in her that makes her so "beefy" or is it just because she's young? Rich tells me I spoil her too much, but my spoiling now consists of scratches only. I do give her 1/2 of a 3 lb. coffee can of alfalfa pellets in the morning when I feed the horses, and every evening she gets a couple of flakes of grass hay and one skinny flake of alfalfa when I put her in her pen for the night. Sometimes I don't put out more grass hay because there's plenty still there. Otherwise, she's just eating pasture.
This morning when I went out to let her out, I saw that she hadn't touched her grass hay - the flakes were still intact. Although of course there was no trace of the alfalfa. The grass is growing fast, though, including the grass in her corral, so I would assume she'd eat that before she'd want to have any dry old hay.
Does what I'm doing sound reasonable? Or should I cut out the alfalfa completely (pellets and hay)? There just isn't enough of that to make a difference, in my mind, but I could be wrong. I'd like to continue feeding that alfalfa flake in the evening because that's how I get her to come in at night. She sees me holding that flake up, and no matter where she is out in the pasture, she comes running. If I didn't have that, she'd probably stay out all night, which I guess would be fine, but I'm trying to get her into a routine of coming in at night, for the times when I'll NEED to have her come in.
~Lannie