In the event you haven’t noticed, making and feeding hay is the major expense of the cow-calf business. Studies from around the U.S. show that operators who make and feed less hay are more profitable.

As every livestock operator knows, feed costs are the single largest expense of their operation. As the snow and the haystack are melting in front of their eyes, the race is on to see which will go first.

With the high price of hay this past winter, many cow-calf operators were scrambling for ways to reduce their winter feeding costs.

What is the average hay-feeding period for cow-calf operations in Minnesota, Missouri and Mississippi? Anyone who was thinking 130 days gets a gold star! With such different climates, why do so many feed so much hay?