We'd be happy to hear any snow related questions. Fire away!

I agree Candice! Love when Eli shares the knowledge!

Great advice as well, thank you!

Thank you for watching!

Hey Troy! The question I gotta ask… when you coming on my show!?

I have mine at home!

That's a great question and a realistic one. Some opt to unroll with equipment rather than by hand - That would depend on the amount of snow and capability of the tractor/machine. BUT you do not have to unroll bales when you bale graze. Many farms and ranches choose to set bales up as whole bales and grant access to the bales as they move livestock. I ran into this problem with this past snow storm. We got 10-12" but the drifting was twice that around the bales. In that case I'll let the animals have at it as is. Often my bull will tear into a bale and get it partially rolled out on his own. Animals are still getting fed, it just might cover less surface area or just be a more dense area right around the bales. -Eli

Where we unroll bales is where we have the best grass the next spring. Best thing we have done on our farm.

In my context, the litter and manure is part of the equation. I get excited about covering and feeding soil as much as cattle. But we should all be budget-aware with too much wasted or fouled hay. Hay rings are fine if they work for you or have a smaller herd. I found that bales lasted just as long in a ring as they did without. Plus my larger bull/cows would flip the rings out of the way anyhow. So for me, it wasn't worth the time moving rings. Now picture that ranch with 100 head in the herd, how many hay rings would that call for? Moving equipment, rings included, is all part of the budget of labor devoted to the task. Moving enough rings to keep up with 100 cattle is not very efficient. It all comes back to context. What is your context, how many animals, their behavior, your goals, your budget/time, etc?

Plus unrolling spreads the impact out more for better distribution of that manure, instead of one heavily impacted ring area. Not to mention unrolling provides a larger surface area access to hay that minimizes bullying or pushing of smaller animals away from the food source. Room for all.