How much hay do I need?

How much hay would a Jersey calf that is current 4 months old eat from mid October to mid April?

Probably looking at Brome or native grass bales.

Real hard to say. A lot depends in the winter and if it is warm or cold and snow as in how much you may have. I feed 2 horses and one pony and they eat about 1 6X6 bale of hay a month but the wives 4 goats eat 1 small square every other day

You will also want to add some grain to the diet if it is cold.

if you went with a small square for each day thats 180 bales. cold weather they burn up more, so if you add 40-50 bales to that should be safe till spring.

1/3 of a bale per grown cow was the rule of thumb I used when I was feeding small squares, but they were on pasture in a fairly warm climate also.

KEH

1/3 of a bale per grown cow was the rule of thumb I used when I was feeding small squares, but they were on pasture in a fairly warm climate also.

KEH

Can you run a test with one square.? X But,in addition, it may also need a mineralised block.

Ah but again that depends on if it is say a 100lbs bale or a 40 lbs bale. Always to many factors to be able to answer a question like this with out knowing a lot more about where when and how much or how little a bale weighs

Back when I raised Jerseys I had a 10/1 rule. 10% body weight in hay, 1% in mixed feed (corn/grain/supplement) per animal. But that was good hay, I bump it up for just grass hay (say 15%).

If in doubt put out a flake and if they eat it all before next feeding, increase it until they have some left over, then drop back. And do not just put it on the ground. They will eat the best parts and lie in the rest spreading it out wasting hay. I tried to keep hay in front of them most of the time, but did not let them get picky on me.

Just guessing from memory, I would figure on average a 4 month old jersey is going to weigh in around 80-100 lbs. Figure he going to gain about 180-200 lbs if fed properly. So if you figured a 150 lb average weight, 15 lbs hay a day for 180 days, or about 2700 lbs of hay. With 50lb bales, that’s 54 bales, but you're going to want extra on hand. Same with feed, about 270 lbs feeding on average 1.5lbs a day, but have a little extra on hand. If it were me I would want 60 bales of good hay (about 80 of grass) and 300 lbs of feed on hand for the winter per calf.

You might have another issue to deal with though. If there is no competition for the food they may not eat properly. I would try to get at least two calf’s.

Only going to gain 1 pound a day on that ration not good at that rate he will die of old age before he gets to 1200 lbs

I tracked our hay usage last winter and it worked out to 24 lbs per animal per day. Beef cows and calves on alfalfa grass hay.

I was going to say a rough figure of 2 bales a week per cow.

Errin sounds a lot more scientific about it than me though - but I think we're in the same ballpark.

180 days is 26 weeks - 26 x 2bales = 52 bales total...

So 60 bales should be about right.

You can never have too much hay till spring when the pasture comes up again. You run outta hay a month before and everyone else will too and you will pay through the nose.

Rick