How do you keep your oxen slim ?

[fabian]

As Tim Harrigan said in another thread this:
“If mature steers have free access to good pasture they will eat 3-5 times what they need and never look back. To me, this is a bigger challenge than just letting them run together.”
my question:
How do you keep your oxen slim ?
limiting the pasture can not be the solution because I know how annoying my cows are if their rumen is not filled completely. 😉
keeping the oxen in the barn during summer can not be the solution FOR ME because I then would have the same amount of work in summer like in winter (feeding and bringing out the daily manure)
Could it be the solution to keep the oxen on poor pasture and provide them a round bale of oat- or barley straw to fill their rumen with nearly “nutrient-free roughage” for keeping them quiet ?

Thanks for your answers

Wolfgang (Fabian 😉 )

[Carl Russell]

We use rotational grazing methods, turning them into paddocks every day or so. This is not only good for limiting their intake, but also great for the land. I will leave them on the paddock a bit longer than I would for cows in milk.

I don’t really care if they want their rumen full, they usually do just fine with me limiting their intake. Also, I have found that the only way to really keep them trim is to work them…. which you probably already know that.

Carl

[Nat(wasIxy)]

At the moment mine are still growing so it’s no problem, but in future if I can’t up their work during peak grass growth (although it’s a busy tim with haymaking etc. and we do plan to use the lads for that – I would probably put them in the paddock just behind the milking cows as we rotate every day and the cows get the best stuff – they can clean up.

[Tim Harrigan]

I use a managed rotational grazing set-up where I restrict access to new pasture with polywire fencing. They have continuous access to a wide lane that includes access to water and a run-in shed and then a narrow lane back to the pasture area. The lanes etc are sort of sacrifice areas, probably 3/4 acre total but they provide plenty of forage in the May-June rapid growth period, probably more than they really need. In the pasture I run parallel strands of polywire, usually only 35 ft apart and advance that for access to fresh pasture, often only advancing 10-15 ft per day. So they get some new pasture every day and then they work the overgrazed sacrifice area.

That restricts access but in a good growing year they get more than they need from the sacrifice area alone. As Carl says, they need work to stay fit. Mine could use more work.

If you are trying to manage both restricted pasture and poor quality hay together you might have to allow pasture access for a short time and then move them to a dry lot for feeding hay. Mine ignore poor quality hay if they can graze even the overworked area.

It is not easy to manage mature steers on pasture and keep them from getting to be overweight. For sure, once they are two years old no longer give them free access to good pasture.

[Vicki]

I have limited success keeping my mature thrifty Dexters from obesity. They really need to work it to keep it off, and I don’t work them enough.
Mine are trained to be tethered, so I can put them in a place of either better or poorer quality grazing, with a longer or shorter tether. They will graze right down to almost nothing, but it gives them something to do without overeating. I usually give them a small ration of not-the-best first cut hay to fill rumens, and tether them to let them have that grazing instinct fulfilled a bit. Plus they then spread their own manure.
The other way is to keep them tied and feed limited ration of hay, but there you have the work of bringing hay and cleaning stalls. Always when tethering I keep a frequent eye on them that they have not gotten into “trouble” being tangled or wound up on a tree.
In drylot, my guys will press fences to try to get that one blade of weed just a tongue-length away. You really need electric fencing for drylot.

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