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Producers urged to have hay tested

published: September 7th 2007
by: Martha Hollida Garrett

Hay, hay and more hay. All across Texas, hay is abundant and plentiful, which is a very different scenario from just a year ago. While the quantity may be plentiful, the quality may still be lacking due to the abundance of moisture and the extended maturity of a lot of the hay prior to baling.

Larry A.Redmon, associate professor and extension forage specialist, with Texas Cooperative Exten-sion at Overton, recently discussed the nutritive value of hay and why producers should be concerned with what’s in their hay.

“It does not matter whether the hay is purchased or raised, the important aspect is to understand whether or not the hay will provide the required level of nutrients for your livestock,” said Redmon.

He pointed out that all organisms require certain levels of nutrients and energy in order to live. Grazing animals have various nutrient requirements depending on the kind, such as cattle, sheep, goats, and horses and class, such as mature, dry pregnant; lactating, or growing animals. Although various minerals and vitamins are important regarding overall health and performance of these grazing animals, energy and crude protein (CP) of the forage are arguably the most important aspects of forage nutrition.

He explained that there are forage testing laboratories that can obtain the numbers for these two important aspects and that producers should always ask for or in the case of raised hay have these numbers. The tests are known in the industry as neutral detergent fiber (NDF), neutral detergent solubles, and acid detergent fiber (ADF), which analyze and characterize the forage elements and crude protein, which is an estimate of total nitrogen. “It’s not a sin to purchase hay low in nutritive value, but it is however a sin to purchase it (or raise it) and feed it,” he stressed.

Since hay may be the only source of nutrients for many grazing livestock during the winter, it is imperative to know what the nutrient requirements for each of the target animals is and to ensure that the hay that is fed will meet that need. Crude protein and TDN requirements for various kinds and classes of livestock are shown in table 1.

“The only way to determine if the hay that is fed will meet the animals requirements, however, is by laboratory analysis. The investment for a forage analysis is a small price to pay to ensure that the livestock nutrient requirements are being met.  If they are not, reduced performance and profit potential are a sure bet, “ he said.

He talked at length about two critical factors for the 2007 hay crop—moisture and maturity.

“This year producers had a lot of their hay get wet while it was laying cut in the field or those that didn’t cut, waited for up to 20 plus days to cut.

If given the choice, it is always best to have the additional maturity over moisture. More hay and nutritive value is lost to moisture than maturity,” he explained adding that you can double the age of your hay crop and still be ahead versus it receiving moisture once cut.

Although much hay is put up and sold as small square bales, most cow-calf producers primarily feed hay in large round bales. The use of round bales is popular due to reduced labor requirements associated with storing and feeding the hay. Most hay sold for cow-calf production systems is sold on a per round bale  basis.

Redmon cited two main problems with this method. The first is that it provides no information on the nutritive value of the hay. Many times hay is advertised as “well” or “heavily fertilized”,  but the meaning of these terms is unclear at best. Redmon asked the producer to question why a bale with only 6% crude protein should sell for the same as bale that contains 16% crude protein. In most cases they should not, yet these differences are not obvious from a visual appraisal.

Another problem re-lates to the amount of dry matter being sold/purchased. Bale size can and does vary tremendously due to differences in a)baling equipment b)experience/skill of the equipment operator, c) forage species d) moisture content of the forage when baled, e) type of wrap used, and f) storage conditions (inside versus outside).

Redmon said complete economic analysis indicates bermudagrass hay costs $95-$100 per ton to produce if all inputs, which include labor, equipment, fuel, repairs, taxes, depreciation, fertility, herbicide, etc. are accounted for. Therefore a round bale that sells for $45 can either be a wise purchase if the bale weighs 1,200 or a poor investment if the bale only weighs 800 lbs. When hay is sold by the bale rather than weight, someone either the seller or the purchaser, is getting short-changed. Producers may also be feeding less nutrients than required for good animal performance if nutrient content is low or bales weigh less than estimated. If hay is fed that does not meet the target animal’s nutrient requirements, supplemental feed will be required, thus increasing the initial cost of the “cheap” hay to a point where it is costs prohibitive.

For complete information on how to obtain a hay analysis, where to send it and costs, log on to http://forages.tamu.edu.

In closing, Redmon admonished the crowd, “get a forage analysis, so there are no surprises.”