Current cattle feeding routine

Instead of taking 3 to 4 days to go through a large bale of the oat, grain and pea hay the cattle had been going through a bale in two days. Since the cattle go through a bale like candy I needed to alter their feed routine or I will end up way short of hay by Spring.   And it wouldn't hurt for the cattle to eat less as they are all fat.

So... rather than putting a large bale in one of the round metal feeders for an all-you-can-eat buffet, I am breaking the bale into sections.  Twice a day - in the morning and then in the late afternoon - I fill the pickup's bed with hay, which I then put into the two wooden feeders in the corral.  This way a bale lasts four days, which makes the extra work worthwhile.

A little over half of a bale left.

The cattle hang in the corral as I load the hay.  I close the gate to lock them in there.  Once I get the hay loaded and the pickup out into the north pasture, I close the gate to the NE pasture and then open the corral gate.

When I started this routine the cattle couldn't wait and came out of the corral to get the hay from the pickup before I could drive into the corral.

Mama is the brown cow on the right side.

Once the cattle are out of the corral I drive into the corral, jump out of the pickup and shut the gate locking the cattle out of the corral.  Otherwise the cattle crowd the pickup and feeder in the corral as I unload the hay and I then have to be careful not to poke the cattle with the pitchfork as I put the hay into the feeder.

Waiting to come back into the corral.

Beulah, Panda and the rest.

Tobey the bull

Here is a 1 minute 13 second video of the cattle coming back into the corral to eat hay: https://youtu.be/9h_vcKUYMLc


Now that I have been doing this over a week some of the cattle realized it was better to wait in the corral by the large feeder.  These cattle were usually the smarter cows and/or cows on the lower end of the pecking order who get pushed away by the other larger cows.  Some cows still come out to the pickup.  These tend to be the impatient and/or bullying cows.  The bull is in this group as he appears to be impatient.  While most cows now want to wait, if one impatient cow comes out of the corral to the pickup, and I wait a few minutes, then much of the rest of the herd comes out as they don't want to "miss out".    Tonight Mama and Red came out, and after much of the herd came out, they turned around and went back into the corral before I was able to drive into the corral and close the gate.   That's how smart those two are.