Fellows,
Dang, I've been gone a week and the first post I read after getting back is on cow vs goose poop. Man, can't wait to catch up with my reading.
Theo, your rule of thumb doesn't work well in Texas...here most everyone uses the big round bales because they are much easier to handle, less labor intensive and you can set out enough hay for weeks at a time. My rule of thumb in East Texas is to plan on 3 round bales per cow per winter. The round bales run 1300 to 1500 pounds each.
Dan, 22 tons of manure per cow sounds like a lot of sh*t, but I believe it. Unfortunately, the area where I feed hay in the winter months drains into my large pond, and that is the source of my nutrient loads I'm sure. Also why I can never use fertilizer. I have about 25 head that I carry over each winter...thats a lot of manure.
Its good to be back to the USA...I've been in Mexico chasing Tarpon, succesfully I might add and will try to post pictures or at least a summary report as time permits.
In the meantime, glad to see the topic selection is at such a high intellectual level
