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Posted 26 December 2010. Forage and Grazinglands. Hay Quality Source: University of Illinois Press Release. aces.illinois.edu Urbana-Champaign, Illinois (December 10, 2010)--Mike Roegge, University of Illinois Extension, Adams/Brown Unit, reports that most beef producers have ample quantities of hay stored for this winter, but the quality of that hay is questionable. The rains that seemed to occur every 3 or 4 days this summer really made conditions difficult for baling of quality hay. And in fact, there is little quality hay available this year. This poor quality hay may severely impact the ability of cows to develop quality calves while maintaining body condition of the cows during the cold winter months.
Hay that's been rained on (and in many cases rained on more than once) loses nutritional quality. How much will depend upon several factors, including: maturity of the forage, forage specie, time interval between cutting and rainfall, amount and length of rain, raking/tedding, etc. So it's not always easy to determine how much quality has been lost when rain does occur before baling. One can't eyeball hay and determine nutrient content to make ration changes that will enable cow's to consume a ration that meets their needs and the needs of their developing calf. Energy and protein will definitely be lower in this years' hay crop. This is due to the above mentioned rain as well as the fact that the vast majority of hay was harvested well past its prime. And any hay that was cut on time and baled without a rain should probably be sold into the higher value horse hay market, which will improve your bottom line. Certainly alternative protein and energy feedstuffs can be purchased much cheaper and supplement the poor quality hay to provide adequate nutrition. To help producers determine supplemental feeding alternatives to bolster the poor quality hay, we've scheduled a beef feeding program, which will be held from 6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. It will be held at two different locations: the old Timewell school (Brown County) on Dec. 21, and the Hancock County Extension Office on Jan. 11. Monte Rowland, Ursa Farmers Coop, and Dean Oswald, U of I Extension will be the speakers. Both programs will be identical. We'll be touching on hay quality factors: testing, feeding, storage and evaluation. In addition, discussions on anaplasmosis (background, prevention and treatment) will be provided. For more information, contact Adams-Brown Extension at 217-223-8380. Contact: |
