how much do you feed

[Oxen Acres Farm]

Hi, my name is Justin and I own a pair of 19 month old Red & White Holsteins and had a feed question. I am just curious what portions other people feed their animals. I currently feed 2 quarts of 16% twice a day per animal and a leaf of hay each twice a day. Any info would be great Thanks.

[Rod]

I feed mine, 14 month old Durhams, 4 Qts of coarse 14 feed plus free choice good dry hay. They have a lot of growing to do yet. The hay is a round bale so it’s hard to determine how much they are eating daily.

[Howie]

Mine are 7 year old Devons. They get no grain, I feed them free choice grass hay. They get a big round bale about every 2 weeks. There are supposed to be 20 square bales in one round bale.

[Rod]

One reason I feed grain is my steers are new to me and the feeding is part of the process of getting them to know me and making them easy to catch. My other cattle (Miniature Lowlines) get no grain ever and stay very fat and sleek on free choice hay alone. I will be phasing the grain out to these as they get older and more used to me but I think it also helps I think as they are still growing.

[Oxen Acres Farm]

Thanks for the input I am growing mine to be pulling cattle so I want them as big as possible I was more curios what other people do. My animals look good, I think so. Also I just wanted to get some more threads about oxen and not all about hay burners ah I mean horse’s. Just kidding:)
Thanks again

[Rod]

Does anyone feed by hay weight or percentage of body weight, say 2.5% etc. My oxen weigh 2000# each but the two of them are eating dry round 4×4 bale in 3.5 days free choice. I am going to weigh the bale today and see how much weight they are actually eating. I want to cut them back because of the cost of the hay and was trying to get an idea of what they need for maintaince in the winter. They are not working much at this time of year.

[mother katherine]

Oxen Acres,
If you can get Drew Conroy’s book, it will give a formula to calculate feed. Another possibilty, as you are in NH, is to get hold of the NH 4H Working Steer booklet. Both are available from Allyson Bronnenberg at New England Ox Supply. She has an online store.
oxnun

[Tim Harrigan]

Rod: The 2.5% rule-of-thumb is just ball park. Young, growing calves will eat 4% if they have access to good hay or pasture and grow fast but not get fat. Older steers can satisfy their maintenance needs with much less than 2.5% with average quality hay, maybe 1.5%. But when they just stand around all day with access to hay, they eat. That rule of thumb is 2.5% of forage dry matter, not hay. By my estimate your bales probably weight about 550 lb at 85% dm, and your feeding losses could easily be 10%. So consumption is about 550 x .85 x .9 = 420 lbs dm over 7 ox days or 60 lb/day. That is about 3% of body weight per day. That does not surprise me for free-choice feeding. You could probably cut them back if practical, or feed them your poorer quality hay. Just keep an eye on them, if they are 2000 lb each they have a ways to go before they waste away.

[Nat(wasIxy)]

He gets either fresh grass every day with the rest of the beef herd, or when housed for the winter ad lib silage. That’s it. Growing up I did give him grain etc. as it’s a useful bargaining tool…He still gets a handful or so when he’s very good 😉

Obviously if I was working him hard he’d get more, but he barely does anything yet as he’s still only 26mo.

[Author]

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