Bales per cow per year?

i know this is a loaded question but i need some help. I farm with my grandfather, well he had another stroke recently and isnt in very good shape. I always did the field work but the cows were more his deal.

How many round bales (4x4) would a beef cow eat in say 4-5 months through the winter/non grass growing season?

again i know there are a 100 different variables to this but i need a starting point

ask away if you need anymore info, thanx, Steve

Better to start with a number in lbs per average day, and pounds per head per COLD day. "Bales" can vary a LOT in weight and RFV.
Google is your friend, your state AG college has lots of booklets on animal care and feeding.

If they are dry lotted, and only being fed hay, we figure about 30 pounds per cow per day. That is for upland prairie hay. If you add grain, for energy, and supplement protein, you can drop that number down quite a bit.

I personaly always figured around 25lbs of hay per day for a average size cow when i was putting up hay. Alot of that of course they can get if pasture is available/accessable. Multiply that by your number of cows x average days you actually have to feed. It varies so much because of the weather,type of hay etc that it would be hard to give an exact number of course. but here in central /western okla,i always tried to have at least enough to feed 60 days.So say you had 100 cows x 25 =2500 lbs a day X 60.Idealy you could do as my grandad did,and never feed hay. His stocking rates were so low that he never fed a bale of hay. The very few times the cattle couldnt find or get to anything he simply fed cubes.But that was many years ago,and most folks hold way more cattle per acre.His stocking rate was normaly 1 cow per thirty acres or less.And he rotated pastures religeously. I never knew him to have a bale of hay on the place. but theres very seldom cattle cant graze at least some here.

im in south western ontario so we do get a decent winter normally. i remember grandpa saying figure on turning the cows out on grass by the first of may. well the past few years we have been able to get them out before then. and we never know when the snow will start flying in the fall/winter but i would take a safe guess at 5 months of feeding a year. we only have 20 cows now and last year we were feeding them a 5x5 bale a day. i guess i kind of just answered my own question but i wanted some other peoples opinions on this.

I planned for 3 bales (6 x 5......1200-1500# bales) per cow in West TN; That figured out to about 30-35# per cow per day. Quality of the hay could be anywhere from awful to excellent and about half of it was stored outside. I typically calved both in the Fall and late Spring; it would matter if your cows are dry, carrying or nursing a large calf.

we plan to calve around april may so they will be carrying calves

Central MN, plan on feeding hay Oct. 15th-May 15th. I always plan for 10 5x5 bales per beef cow, and usually am pretty close. I don't run out, but usually have only 10-15 bales left over. I feed 50 stock cows, a couple of bulls, and some of the calves that I hold over to sell until spring. (only need 5 bales per 600-800lb calf, but they also get ground feed too.)

Non grass growing season does not mean the cow is not still grazing. I get a lot of winter feed out of pastures and crop areas. But yeah, with waste I figure 40 pounds per day that I hay the cows. And once they start calving I figure 50 pounds til turn out time. You can't grow big calves if you don't keep the cow milking. Save your best hay for calving. A dry cow will eat anything when it's cold. That's when you feed the trashy stuff. Her nutrient requirements are a lot less before she calves but she needs a lot of roughage to keep her body warm.

It depends on the weather and whther you"re feeding feeders, bred heifers or mature cows and if the later two, the stage of pregnancy.

We live in Western Montana and have a small cow calf operation. We separate the heifers we are developing and the bred heifers from the cows and feed them very well;as much as they"ll eat through out the winter. We"ll switch over to grass/alfalfa in the last trimester of pregnancy to get them in really good shape for calving(bred, first calf heifers) and breeding (yearling heifers- They are going and are going to be "teenage mothers" so they need to be well fed.) Some folks here give them 5 lbs of grain/hd to supplement them but we we don"t.

The mature cows get about 50 lbs of grass( ~4% of body weight per day) untill the last trimester of pregnancy and then we feed them alfalfa/grass at the same rate during the last trimester of their pregnancy.

I"ve found thet feeding cows well (not overfeeding or wasting feed) is the cheapest medicine there is. They stay healthy, have a strong calf, milk well, and re-breed on time.

If the weather gets cold we feed heavier. We watch the cows condition at all times and if we see them getting thin we"ll up the feed.

A good rule of thumb is 4% of body weight per head per day of good hay for mature dry cows ( 1st and 2nd trimesters of pregnacy). 4% mature weight per head per day of 50/50 good quality grass/alfalfa in the last trimester of pregnancy and early lactation. Watch their condition and adjust feeding accordingly. The National Research Council publishes feeding info if you want to really get technically correct with the nutritional needs of cattle so do a web search if you want that kind of info.

We try to have 2 tons on hand Dec 1st.per cow.We normally feed jan 20 to may 10 cows have some access to pasture.Usually feed about 1 3/4 tons,past winter started 22 feb so only feed a little over a ton. In past 40 years we have only feed twice before Christmas.
We will feed tubs or block in exteme weather.

Give us some info and we can help you.
Location, so we know what weather?
Breed and size of cows?
Pasture quality?
Any winter grains for grazing?
I have 1200 lb Angus cows in North Central Texas, that calve out in November/December, some dry pasture grazing and few acres of fall planted oats/wheat for winter grazing. Figure about 25-30 lbs hay per cow per day of feeding season. Usually works out to be about 4 to 5 bales per head, bales are 4 X 5 round, outside stored, some oat hay, mostly Klein Grass, some coastal bermuda hay, some sudan hybrid cross hay.
Tom

Here in North-east Iowa, on beef cows weighing 1300-1500,I want usually 2.5 ton of mixed grass hay per cow. In years like last year I may have half that left but in a real tough winter I have had to supplement with silage in late winter to stretch the hay. I will admit to keeping my brood cows kind of fleshy. I don't want them fat but I do want them carrying good weight come calving season.

I also have several cows that are in their mid-teens in age and still raise a good calf. I like to think it is because I keep them in good health with plenty of feed.