Polish cattle farmer cuts feed costs with cows on pasture from May to November
Bronisław Bach, a Polish beef cattle breeder, keeps cows with calves on pasture from May to November to reduce feeding costs. The Polish farming outlet topagrar.pl describes his system.
The Polish farming outlet topagrar.pl has profiled the farm of beef cattle breeder Bronisław Bach, where pasture use helps keep feeding costs down. Cows and their calves spend the period from May to November on pasture, and during this time they live mainly on the grass available.
The farmer stresses that well-managed grassland makes it possible to reduce spending on feed. The herd moves between separate paddocks.
Water on pasture
Access to water is another key part of the grazing set-up. The farm has wells, and drinkers are moved between paddocks, so water does not have to be hauled by tractor every day.
Hay and haylage
The farm produces roughly 1,500 bales of hay and 500–600 bales of haylage a year. Feed quality depends on mowing date, the weather and how efficiently the harvest is organised. Bach mows up to 20 hectares at a time, but does not let cut grass lie in the field too long. He describes what he checks before baling, and notes that overly strong sun can harm the hay.
Preparing calves after weaning
After weaning, the young animals are either sold or kept on the farm for fattening. They then receive, besides hay and maize silage, a feed mix prepared on site with purchased protein components. Calves are gradually introduced to maize silage even before weaning, which makes the switch to more intensive feeding easier.
A full report on Bach's system and how it gives him more control over costs appears in the outlet's quarterly magazine Bydło mięsne i opasy (Beef Cattle and Fattening).
