Do you know how much grass your animals need? Do you know how much grass you can grow?
Winter can be a challenging time for small block holders and farmers alike. As grass growth slows due to low temperatures and fewer sunlight hours, your animals are likely to require supplementary feeding. Although it might seem early, now is the time to get prepared! Accurate feed budgets are complicated, you need to know the weight of your animals, the energy value of the food, and the additional energy needs for growth, pregnancy, and/or lactation.
There are many supplemental feeds available including grass based (hay, baleage, silage) and manufactured (pellets). Hay (dried grass) is the most common and easily available form of supplemental feed for small numbers of animals, but it loses nutrients and energy as it dries out. Baleage and silage are also preserved grass but have been fermented rather than dried and so have better nutritional value than hay. Silage is more fermented than baleage and can be harder to feed out so is generally less practical for small holdings. For all grass based supplemental feeds the quality of the pasture that went into making them will determine the quality of the finished product. Pellets are the most energy dense option and usually contain added nutrients and minerals. Care should be taken to ensure pellets are introduced slowly to avoid acidosis and that they are either nutritionally balanced or fed with a grass-based feed.
As a rough guide it is good to know how many animals one hay bale can feed. Assuming good quality hay, one standard square bale (25kg) can feed one of the below animal groups for one day:
The last thing to consider when choosing the right amount of supplemental feed for your property and animals is wastage. When you provide supplemental feeds on the ground up to half of it can go un-eaten due to getting wet and trampled! Feeders come in many sizes from ones that can hang off a fence or gate to larger trailers that can be moved between paddocks. Ideally a feeder should have a solid lid to protect the food from rain and a tray to catch dropped feed.
