Free Choice

We try to give our cattle choices. Large animals (and small ones too for that matter) like to be able to roam around, find their own grazing and loafing areas. Some tend to head up hill under the tall firs and around the small meadows formed in the thinned spots, others like the lower trails along the bottom of the hillside.

Feeding the herd gives them more options to supplement the grazing with sweet grass hay that we grow, harvest and store here on the farm. This fall with the grass still growing, it is important to keep that extra roughage that the hay gives to keep their bellies in good working order. Without the supplemental hay, the critters would be as loose as in the spring when the grass is growing so fast, and they simply shoot out the manure along with essential vitamins and minerals rather than proper digestion.

In the show barn (my barn) and the bull barn (Mike’s barn) we also have minerals available, even the very young animals return time and time again for a few licks.

We offer salt and minerals by loading the round hay feeders and salt lick stations. We can feed hay right on top of the minerals and the critters will easily eat only the hay if that is what their needs are. If the herd is away from the nutrients for a few days while they roam other fields, they glom onto the stations, sometimes biting more than simply licking until they are nutritionally satisfied.

Cattle seem to be pretty savvy about only consuming the amount of salt and minerals that they need and do not need to be rationed. Makes me wish that us two-legged animals could figure out what our needs are without over consuming…

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