Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How late into Spring are cattle fed hay?

I notice a lot of the hay barns in my area are stilled full. Maybe it's just because last year was wet, or because herds have been cut back. But it seems like there's still a lot of hay. I thought fertilizer prices would cause there to be less hay. Yesterday I saw a place that was already putting up the first cut of this year. How late into spring are cows fed hay? If the barns are still full does that mean there will be an oversupply going into next winter?

Year around, cattle eat grass. Grass grows in summer. Not enough grass put up to make the winter, cattle sold. Any other stupid questions

Kinda depends on the year.


If you can stop yourself grazing too early for the conditions....feeding hay is actually cheaper.

Jim , when was the last summer you quite feeding bought hay

Short answer;
Typically gonna be feeding hay till the pastures are ready.



You must be quite a ways south if the first cutting is already in the works. I still have 2 1/2 feet of snow on my hayfield.

Are you neighbors with wabigoon?

Jimmy I got this. To answer the OP question the answer is yes.

Neighbors are still feeding some hay, helps keep the cows from pooping themselves to death on all of the new green grass.

Might be summer this year.

We used to feed them corn silage until it was gone. We didn’t want a little pile becoming moldy. As far as hay, well that depends on the year.

Not living in Iowa anymore Scott?

Snow is long gone here, days have been close to 90F this week!

18,000 dairy cows won't have to be fed anything in the Tx. Panhandle
according to reports.

Here in Utah & much of the west I'd assume

Early June cows are pushed up to summer US Forest pastures

Not sure what the grazing permit runs per cow...but its cheap

Then the hay fields are open to start watering & raise hay

Cows then normally by mid September head back down on their own when first snow starts

The fact that our education system is so dumbed down that anyone would even ask this question. Smh

We (very locally) had a great summer, last year, so have fed hay to the cows only once - when it snowed just enough to cover left-over grass.
We've been feeding cubes all winter to the cows.
Our yearlings are getting the usual left-over graze, cubes, and some hay, so we will have what hay we'd have fed cows, as carryover for next year.
NICE to have a head start!!!

Got side-tracked a little.
We feed usually until around the 10th of May, generally. That's when our grass usually gets a little start.
Seems to be coming just a little earlier this year, though.

see blanket and rost not so hard to answer a question ....bob

I sure amazes me that areas that get some rain each year feed more hay than I do.

That depends on conditions. If we don’t get any rain, we might have to feed hay all summer. Right now we need some rain.

Last summer I hauled water every day then started supplementing w hay around July 15. Normally we can make it until cornstalks come available. I turn out June 1 normally. We're going to have a decent start due to all the snow we got but most dams are under half full. Seems like we're a week out from a drought again.