Cattle Diets and Nutrition

Cow manure does not exist in twinkies. Twinkies are primarily made of a form of corn-derivative, but definitely not cow manure.

Location, location, location!! It all depends on your location, as someone may be able to have 36 acres for 36 head, or need 160 acres for 36 head. The related questions below will explain why knowing location, terrain, climate and other factors are so important in order to know how much land is needed--mainly for pasture, but also for drylotting these animals--for 36 head of cattle.

As much or long as it likes and you want. Seriously, you can have your calf graze as much as you wish or it wishes, it's not like feeding grain to it and risking it getting bloat from feeding too much grain.

Yes. They can produce more or less, depending on their diet.

Hormones are used on cattle to ensure they fatten up, grow quickly, produce higher yields of milk and produce high financial gains. Hormones used to fatten beef cattle and their availability are synthetic and natural hormones that ensure cattle has a high turn over rate, i.e. they are quickly slaughtered and replaced with new fast growing/fattened cattle. Natural hormones include the hormones estradiol benzoate progesterone or testosterone. The availability of such implants can be found at your local farm and ranch store, or can be purchased from your local large animal veterinarian.

No. Too much of the liquid molasses can, though, since it is high in energy content like grain.

Define "stuff." The vast majority of a cow's diet is comprised of grass in its various forms (depending how it was harvested and fed to cattle), so no.

Nothing, as there's nothing you can do, really, as it happens more than you might think.

Depends on where you and those 15 acres are located.

It doesn't.

Unless there's bits of plastic on the hat that may block the cow's digestive system on the way down and out, it shouldn't hurt the cow.

Haylage can certainly be, yes, and often is.

Fodder crops are incredibly important to livestock, especially cattle. Feeding cattle and grazing them ultimately depends on the production of forage crops because these animals will not nor can not eat anything else. Cattle are herbivores and designed to eat plants that are impossible for us humans to eat, so in order for us to get beef and milk from these animals, we had--and have--to feed them according to what they can, will, and need to eat. Thus, no matter how or what cattle are fed, they all source from fodder crops.

Wheat hay is very high in fibre (acid detergent fibre), and low in protein and energy. It's only good if you're feeding it to cows in mid-gestation, not to growing calves, breeding bulls, growing replacement heifers, young calves, lactating cows, cows in late gestation, or dairy cattle, unless you are really on to feeding supplements that contain high protein and energy.

A cow in a controlled feeding operation, like if you're with the FFA or 4-H and feeding your 4-H calf a grain-mix ration, the animal needs to be fed twice a day the same time of day every day. The best times to feed your animal is at mid to late morning and late afternoon for optimum gains and performance from your animals.

If you are feeding your cattle not as 4-H animals but as your own and only feeding them hay, you can feed them once a day or once a week, depending on how many bales you put out for them and how you feed them. To spend less time in the tractor and more time with your family, feed them enough bales so that it'll sustain them for a week.

This is a ridiculous question as I ever heard one. Cows CAN eat, they have to eat otherwise they'd die.

grass

On the ground.

There really is no specific number to be had here. It all depends on the size of the woods and the producer (or producers) behind the action to graze such woodlands. If you want numbers, though, anywhere from one to hundreds (sometimes thousands) will be se to graze deciduous woodland at a time. Note that the larger the number, the shorter space of time is allowed for the animals to graze in such an area.

It depends on the age of the calves themselves. If they're wearers, yes, definitely; either that or else salt and mineral in the loose form, since trace blocks are really 95% salt and the rest mineral. If the calves are unweaned and still dependent on their dam's milk, no. It's their dams that will need it, not the calves themselves.

They can, if they want to.

Maintenance requirements are 2.5% of a cow's body weight in dry matter ration per day.

yes

yes