In the winter cattle will often waste a third to half of hay offered free choice. They do this by any number of bad tricks: stomping, fouling, over eating, bedding down on the hay. It turns out that there comes a time in a cow's life that having a dry spot to lay down is more important than eating. When you unroll hay, and the cows go lay down on it, they have hit that point. Then again, they might be trying to tell you something about your hay quality. For the most part cattle will waste a greater percentage of poor quality hay than of good quality hay. On a relative basis, low-quality hay responds much better to processing than does good quality material. If hay quality is close to straw, chopping the material in a tub grinder will tend to increase animal intake and feed digestibility.

There are some things that can be done to reduce hay waste.

Daily feeding, as compared to feeding every other day or every two days tends to reduce waste. There is only half the material on the ground to be stomped  once they have finished their initial feeding.

Over consumption of feed is a form of wastage. A dry, pregnant cow will eat 20 to 30 percent more hay than is required to meet nutritional requirements. Over a 100-day feeding period, a 1,300-pound cow can consume 700 to 800 pounds more than she needs.

Feeder design can reduce waste. A round bale feeder with a sloped entry bar design saves feed when cows back away from the feeder. A solid lower section in the feeder prevents hay from being pulled out of the bottom. Inverted cone feeders reduce wastage more than feeders without a cone in the center. I dislike feeding cattle in elevated hay racks where the cattle must reach up to pull the hay down.

When feeding large round bales, ensure adequate numbers of cattle are present to clean up the feed on a daily basis. All cattle should have space at the feeder at the same time. Too much or too little competition for feed increases waste.

Feed outside-stored hay first. Hay stored outside usually has more spoilage during storage and reduced palatability compared to covered feed. If you have limited covered storage, store the best quality material under cover.

If you must feed on the ground, select clean areas. Moving daily feeding areas tends to improve palatability of trampled feed later that day. The feeding areas should be different from the resting areas. Cows tend to want to eat and go hide. Under winter stress, they want to eat, then go ruminate in a protected area, contemplating things of profound import. By the glassy cold look in their eye, I've always suspected these ruminating thoughts are along the lines of, "How would I conceptualize infinity?" Or, "Do I have worms?"