[Rosemary]

I'm just organising bringing the cattle in for a couple of months.

How much hay rack space should I allow for each cow? They are horned, but not very big 450kg probably.

At the moment, the five of them access a 10ft sheep hay rack, but they can move round it as it's in the field.

Any tips welcome.

[Ina]

Well - if you are feeding ad lib, it doesn't matter so much... Or are you restricting quantity?

(My old text book says 70-75 cm/animal for each place, but with ad lib you don't need a place for each...)

[Rosemary]

No, it won't be ad lib or they would be the size of houses 

I've just found the Soil Association standards, which cover floor space but not trough space, I don't think. Printed them off so I'll see what they say.

75cm in old money is 2 1/2 feet - sounds about right.

[SallyintNorth]

When planning cattle feeders, it's 18" min per beast.  And yours are horned so probably a good idea to allow a little more.  2-and-a-half feet sounds fine 

[Factotum]

Hi

We put a round feed ring in the shed in the winter - the sort for a large round bale. The cattle are fed hay ad-lib & they don't get too fat  - at the moment the 15 are getting through a bale every 2-3 days, though they are still taking themselves outside. They only stay in when it's too thick with snow to see any green stuff.

They don't all feed at once, there is a 'eating order', but everyone does get their fill.


Sue

[Rosemary]

Hi

We put a round feed ring in the shed in the winter - the sort for a large round bale. The cattle are fed hay ad-lib & they don't get too fat  - at the moment the 15 are getting through a bale every 2-3 days, though they are still taking themselves outside. They only stay in when it's too thick with snow to see any green stuff.

They don't all feed at once, there is a 'eating order', but everyone does get their fill.


Sue

Hmm, I don't have room for a round bale feeder in our current set up or any way to handle a round bale. Maybe next year