What time of day do you feed your livestock?

[Farmer Kitty]

To me this makes scense. Most of our animals are less active at night so they can put the food to use to grow or produce. During the day they are up and busy so they spend some of the energy from the food being active instead of growing or producing.

My chickens have food in their feeder 24 hours a day. The cows, calves, and small heifers get fed twice a day. The big heifers and the dry cows out with them, get fed in feeders a couple times a week. They have food in front of them all the time but, the round bales will last them the week and then they get their corn silage too.

 

[lupinfarm]

Well our dogs are fed once a day in the mornings, except for Quesa, Ginny, and Kitty who get some puppy food in the evening with rice.

The chickens are free choice in a hanging feeder, I usually top the feeder up in the evening before they tuck in for the night or if it is empty in the morning i'll fill it up. On days like today (heavy snow) they won't be outside so I'll make them up some scrambled eggs and maybe a bit of rice if I feel nice enough LOL. They don't go out in the snow cause I'm always afraid they're going to die of exposure or something if it gets really cold later and they've been covered in snow all day.

Horses were always fed twice a day, morning, and late afternoon... only in the winter months never in the summer. Actually in the summer the only one who got grain was Smoothie because she was a skinny TB mare who was a bit flighty, she had Coco Pops (high fat high fibre, they're round and brown and smell amazing). In the winter Pal gets if he's kept in a stall at night.... grain mix... so sweet feed without the molasses, and hay cubes which we'd sprinkle a bit of water on. In the summer nothing. And if he was pastured all winter just the grain mix.

 

[freemotion]

I guess I missed that you are talking about graining when you say "feeding?" Since I don't grain anyone except the chickens, unless they need it, I wasn't getting that they have hay/pasture all the time.

So my new answer is that when I have to grain, I divide it into at least two feedings, as a big hit of carbs makes me nervous (founder, etc) as it is not the critter's natural way of eating. They eat many times per day normally, hence the browse or graze readily available unless we are talking about an obese animal. Then I prefer poorer hay (stemmy) rather than less hay if I can. It is not a normal part of the diet to eat seed heads in large amounts all at once, unless it is a bird or rodent. Although, selective breeding probably has changed that somewhat, maybe, in some animals??

And a little factoid about people eating at night and getting fatter: Human Growth Hormone is produced while we are sleeping at night. Carbohydrates greatly reduce this if eaten close to bedtime. HGH production reduces rapidly as we age, so this effect increases as we get older.....which is why we used to eat a pound bag of candy and stay the same weight in our twenties and we think about one chololate chip now and increase a pant size!

This is also a culprit in weight gain in shift workers, whose natural rhythms are interrupted with their poor sleeping patterns, and why quality sleep is critical to good health and maintaining healthy weight.

So if you are a late snacker, go for protein, like cheese w/no crackers! I just try to move my popcorn to an earlier time slot....