Left over hay

I have some left over square bales of hay from last year (cut July 2008). It has been in an open shed all this time with a tarp over it. Will if suffice for feeding a beef steer this winter till it is gone or he is slaughtered?

Yes , It will be fine! Mark

Yep, feed 'er up!

I usually end up with 3-4 T of large round bales and that's what I feed the dries first the following year.

If it has been covered it should be just fine. The only thing I would worry about for keeping it for next year is mouse damage. Mice like to get into bales and eat what they want and nest in the rest. They leave a lot of manure and urine over time. But it should be OK if you feed it first.

One time when I was a kid, we were given half a barn load of hay that had been there for about 10 years. We were really short of hay that year, and this hay was free--the owner just wanted his barn emptied. So we hauled load after load out of there. The hay was pretty smelly from the mice and there were lots of turds that dropped out. But it was free and it kept our beef herd going that Spring. They didn't like it much. We fed good hay to the milk cows.

These days I would worry about catching some disease from the mouse droppings, but back in the 60's we didn't know anything about such problems, and didn't end up with any. We didn't even use dust masks when we handled that cruddy hay...OH WELL!

Having barn cats around helps, especially if they are raising a litter of kittens. My mama cats have been incredible hunters and really keep the mouse population down here. Good luck!

I've been feeding a combination of 2008 hay and 2007 hay- its no contest, they like the 2007 hay best, hands down. It was tedded, 2008 hay was not. If hay is kept dry, probably good for at least 3 years.

I was feeding a choice of both first cutting 2008 big round bales( that were stored inside) or 25 year old little squares to my weened calves all winter.

Which do you think they went to first?

They ate about 800 little bales this winter. I got about 2000 more to get the barn empty.

Keep it dry and it will last. Nutrients may be lower but it's better than a snowbank by far.

Gary

If yer cattle don't like it, yer outdoor wood furnace may enjoy it. Mine has been eating between 4 and 8 small square bales per day off and on all winter. Grass burns better than clover and big fireboxes work better than small ones. It's kind of a pain because you have to shovel out ashes very regularly but hay, free heat is free heat.

Alf

Furrow magazine did an article on old hay several years ago. They tested what was known to be 50 year old hay. It had lost very little of its feed value in all those years.

(quoted from post at 20:56:17 03/24/09) I was feeding a choice of both first cutting 2008 big round bales( that were stored inside) or 25 year old little squares to my weened calves all winter.

Which do you think they went to first?

They ate about 800 little bales this winter. I got about 2000 more to get the barn empty.

Keep it dry and it will last. Nutrients may be lower but it's better than a snowbank by far.

Gary

Click to expand...

I had that same experience with 7 year-in-the-barn hay vs last seasons. Surprised several folks....me included.