# Cattle won't eat the hay



## myheaven (Apr 14, 2006)

My girls and 2 boys for that fact will not eat the hay we just got. We have 21 bales of it. This is our winter hay there is nothin I can do for them. I supplament the 5 heifers and 1 cow in milk plus the boys with alfalfa. They eat the alfalfa but then starve themselves till the next am when it's time to throw the alfalfa. My cow has taken it upon herself to jump the cattle panel each night and wait for me in the morning! Not a good thing! Bad bad cow! 
What do I do!? Goats will devour the hay but not my brat cattle. We are electric reinforceing the winter Lot tonight. I don't want my cow hurt. Nor anyone else for that matter. Advice please.


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## ramiller5675 (Mar 31, 2009)

Last winter after 2 years of severe drought and very little hay available, about half of my hay was some wheat straw I had baled as "insurance". 

When winter came, I had the choice of either selling off half of the cattle or finding a way to get them to eat that straw (it was quality wheat straw but was real low protein). 

I started out by putting out 2 days worth of higher quality hay in bale feeders, then would roll out 2 days worth of wheat straw and would also feed them a few pounds of high protein 38% cubes for each of those 2 days. Once they started eating the straw, I stopped rolling it out and started feeding it in feeders, too (as it was I had to ration out what hay I had to make it last as long as possible). 

The cubes are supposed to stimulate their appetites and make the low-quality straw or hay more digestible so that they will eat more of it. 

I hated spending all that extra money on those 38% cubes, but it was cheaper than buying higher quality hay (if I could have found any), or taking the loss from selling them all off.


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## Allen W (Aug 2, 2008)

I'm curious what kind of hay it is.


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## myheaven (Apr 14, 2006)

It's grass hay. They have had it before. But now they are throwing a fit cuse they have a taste of the alfalfa. The goats who are normally my pickeyest eaters are devouring it.


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## myheaven (Apr 14, 2006)

I have a 32% pellet I run in their grain mix.


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## Chaty (Apr 4, 2008)

I would only give the alfalfa to the milk cow and the others should eat the hay. I would maybe put a little Molassas on the hay to get them started. Just drizzle it over some of the hay. I give my goats that are in milk alfalfa pellets, less waste. When I had my Jersey she got alfalfa pellets added to her food. Just a thought.


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## Lazy J (Jan 2, 2008)

It seems you are feeding them too much. Obviously they like the alfalfa, stop giving it to them and they will start eating the grass hay.


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## Evons hubby (Oct 3, 2005)

My cows can get a bit picky sometimes too. I offer them whatever hay I have.... and point to the snow covered pasture.... odd how they choose the hay nearly every time.  now and then I do run up on a roll they dont care for at all... a little molasses or salt seems to help.


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## countryfied2011 (Jul 5, 2011)

And I always heard cattle will eat just about any hay.....not my two and I am so glad to see I am not the only one who has picky eaters.

I will try the molasses and salt trick. Another problem I have is it seems to be hard for them to eat from round bales. Anyone else have this problem? I finally switched to square bales, but that is so expensive.

I feed clean grass hay.


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## sassafras manor (Dec 5, 2009)

If they are having a hard time getting started on the round bales, try using a hay hook to loosen up the top or sides of the round bale. I agree with the other posters about using molasses to stimulate them to eat the hay. In the past I also have tossed some sweet feed onto the loose hay to encourage them to start eating the hay.


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## karenp (Jun 7, 2013)

I'm so glad it's not just me. I picked up a few bales of alfalfa and was giving a flake in the morning as a treat. She started turning her nose up at the very nice grass hay she had been devouring. I quit the alfalfa, after about a week and a half she's back to normal. I agree with Countryfied, anyone who says cows will eat any kind of hay has not met my girl.


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## Lazy J (Jan 2, 2008)

As a rule we overfeed our cattle, especially the further East and the smaller the herd. Thousands and thousands of brood cows are fed on what we affectionately called "sticks and stones" in my grad school nutrition classes. There are very few if any cases where you can justify providing high quality alfalfa to a beef brood cow, unless you raised it and do not accurately value your opportunity costs. 

Brood cows and brood ewes should be the scavengers on a farm, eating the lower quality feedstuffs while they are gestating. Of course once they begin to milk they need a slightly higher plane of nutrition.

The result of overfeeding brood cows is overconditioned females which leads to breeding and birthing problems, lack of milk production and reduced weaning weight. A beef producer must view their animals with proper nutrition in mind and resist the urge to throw them a flake of succulent alfalfa simply because "They look hungry".

Jim


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## myheaven (Apr 14, 2006)

We have the alfalfa hay as it is cheaper by $7 per 50 pound cheaper. The girls and boys don't waste it. The other girls and boys need it as they are smaller then should be as our last grass hay was not adequate and the co-op scrwed up on the bulk fed mix they sold us. We now make our own. 
The alfalfa added was at the vets suggestion. Trust me they need it. Molly stayed in the pen all night. They have always had round bale hay. This is nothing new to them. I'm feedin the alfalfa on top of their round bale now. We are now covered in snow so that should help Encourage the hay eating. We need to feed 155lbs of hay a day for the 5 heifers 2 steer and 1 cow. Then the concentrates. They are not overfed. That is 3% of their body weight combined.


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## Allen W (Aug 2, 2008)

If your figuring 3% of body weight + grain your over estimating what they are going to eat, grain will replace some of the hay they eat.

A brood cow will eat about any thing you put in front of her, just don't let them have the good stuff first. I've bought thin dry wintered cows to feed low quality hay to I couldn't sell for a decent price. A little protein supplement and water and hay and they were happy. I've got a pair I bought yesterday,need to go see if that old rip still wants to kill me or has settled down, If I'm lucky the neighbors dogs come through last night and she got to take her anger out on them.


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## ramiller5675 (Mar 31, 2009)

There's always that joke about the best way to get a cow to eat old hay is to throw it in a gulley for erosion control and they will eat every last bit of the bale. 

I baled up an extra-weedy area last summer (mostly marestail and ragweed) trying to clean up the weeds and also give me some bales to use for erosion control. Those bales were mostly stemmy weeds and you could smell the ragweed from a distance, so I thought the cattle would leave them alone until they had composted down and filled in the gulley.

I carefully stacked those bales in the eroded area I was trying to fix and a couple of days later, they had eaten almost all of those bales. I can almost guarantee that if I had tried to feed them those bales in February, they probably wouldn't have touched them.


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## myheaven (Apr 14, 2006)

Well Allen you are far warmer then I. This am it was 7, now it's 15. I'm going to give them 1/2 the alfalfa in the am 1/2 I p then their grain. We're to be -5 tonight. Brrrr.
I'm going to continue on my vets advice. I trust her. She has 150 cows herself. She was also born and raised on a farm.


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## myheaven (Apr 14, 2006)

These are dairy heifers and to be bred by may 2014.


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## Allen W (Aug 2, 2008)

myheaven said:


> Well Allen you are far warmer then I. This am it was 7, now it's 15. I'm going to give them 1/2 the alfalfa in the am 1/2 I p then their grain. We're to be -5 tonight. Brrrr.
> I'm going to continue on my vets advice. I trust her. She has 150 cows herself. She was also born and raised on a farm.


You wanted to know why your cattle weren't eating the hay I gave my opinion. I'm just a dumb farmer, hay baler and do a little cow upgrading in between. 

If you was closer I could fix you up with some nice crabgrass hay that would be ideal for your young calves.


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## nchobbyfarm (Apr 10, 2011)

A man I met years ago trained/raised bird dogs. He told me he fed his dogs collards. I told him my dogs wouldn't eat collards. He said his wouldn't either for the first week! Hunger is a great motivator!


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## myheaven (Apr 14, 2006)

Allen I'm not disagreeing on the cause as the refusal to eat the grass hay. I disagree about the amount of the feed they need. I agree they want the alfalfa over the grass.


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## Allen W (Aug 2, 2008)

No problem.


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## Lazy J (Jan 2, 2008)

Yeah but. Yeah but.


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## Lazy J (Jan 2, 2008)

This type of thread frustrates me. The OP posts a question then receives valid answers only to have the OP refute the suggestions with addigional information. More suggestions are then given but the OP gives even more information and refuses the suggestions.

This makes those of us with experience to be riticent to offer comments.


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## Allen W (Aug 2, 2008)

Lazy J said:


> This type of thread frustrates me. The OP posts a question then receives valid answers only to have the OP refute the suggestions with addigional information. More suggestions are then given but the OP gives even more information and refuses the suggestions.
> 
> This makes those of us with experience to be riticent to offer comments.


Amen Well said,


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## ACEstes (11 mo ago)

myheaven said:


> My girls and 2 boys for that fact will not eat the hay we just got. We have 21 bales of it. This is our winter hay there is nothin I can do for them. I supplament the 5 heifers and 1 cow in milk plus the boys with alfalfa. They eat the alfalfa but then starve themselves till the next am when it's time to throw the alfalfa. My cow has taken it upon herself to jump the cattle panel each night and wait for me in the morning! Not a good thing! Bad bad cow!
> What do I do!? Goats will devour the hay but not my brat cattle. We are electric reinforceing the winter Lot tonight. I don't want my cow hurt. Nor anyone else for that matter. Advice please.


In short….they’re spoiled. My herd did the same thing, bought some really high quality, high price hay (25 bales) and then some meh hay to offset the cost (about 15 bales). The meh hay had Johnson grass in it; which I’ve come to loathed. Any who, when they get the good stuff for a few weeks then I rotate the Johnson grass bales in and they will boycott for 2-3 days. They eventually grow tired of hungry bellies and devour the Johnson bale. Then it’s another 3-4 weeks of the good stuff. When they don’t get the better quality hay they bellow at the gate and act like they are starving; their just spoiled. 
having said all that…check your hay for mold and dust. I’ve been sold some shatty hay and didn’t realize how old it was until we unveiled it.


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

My goats WILL NOT TOUCH the high quality Bermuda hay that I purchased.


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## muleskinner2 (Oct 7, 2007)

myheaven said:


> It's grass hay. They have had it before. But now they are throwing a fit cuse they have a taste of the alfalfa. The goats who are normally my pickeyest eaters are devouring it.


It's no different than a kid who won't eat his peas, or green beans. Like my mom used to say, "you will change your mind when you get hungry". I have seen starving cattle eat Choya Cactus. Have you ever seen Choya Cactus?


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## newlife1952 (11 h ago)

I have a rescued black angus cow and a mini jersey steer. After eating alfalfa orchard hay I got some beautiful orchard. They stand looking at me and pouting. They refuse to eat the orchard. Since they were literally starved in their previous environment it breaks my heart to see them go hungry but unless I sell the orchard and replace with the alfalfa orchard mix - starving until they eat it is my only option. I’m in Colorado and it’s cold. One of my reasons for changing was the steer. Will alfalfa hurt him? I read somewhere that it causes bladder problems in steers. Thank you more experienced ranchers and farmers. My first cow rescues and definitely different from horses I’ve rescued.


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

They will eat it. Wait.


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## Evons hubby (Oct 3, 2005)

My uncle raised cattle for many years…. All he ever fed them was alfalfa hay.


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

Evons hubby said:


> My uncle raised cattle for many years…. All he ever fed them was alfalfa hay.


I'll bet they were very happy cattle!

I mix in some alfalfa with grass hay to get my reluctant eaters to chow down.

Have a neighbor who sprinkles dry molasses on the grass hay to her gang to eat.


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## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

From afar, I cannot tell if they are getting enough alfalfa, so ignore good grass hay or is there something in the hay they don't like. While goats will eat spruce needles, cattle prefer better forage. Cattle can, and need to, digest lots of crude fiber. Some hay gets sprayed as it is baled to retard mold. There are several types of grass that cattle won't eat. I'm reminded of a farmer that had his horses get blisters in their mouths. Thought it was some awful disease. But it was late cut foxtail and the sharp seed heads were cutting the horses mouths. Would be the same for cattle.


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