Know the Quality of Hay You Are Buying

Donna M. Amaral-Phillips, Department of Animal Sciences; Mike Collins and Jimmy Henning, Department of Agronomy, University of Kentucky To determine the quality of hay or balage you are buying, you must have the forage sampled and the quality analyzed by a forage testing laboratory. To accurately determine the quality of hay for sale, a representative sample must be taken using a hay probe. Grab samples will not provide uniform samples for analysis. For square bales of hay, 15 to 20 separate bales from each lot of hay should be cored using a hay probe. (A lot of hay is defined as hay from the same field that has been cut, handled, baled, and stored under similar conditions.) In a bucket, mix the samples thoroughly, and send a quart of material to a certified forage testing laboratory for testing and analysis. The National Forage Testing Association (NFTA) certifies the accuracy of forage testing laboratories. Forage testing laboratories currently certified for either wet-chemistry or NIR analysis can be found on the NFTA
Web site (www.foragetesting.org).

Reading a Forage Analysis

Energy is the hardest nutrient to provide to cattle; therefore, the most important numbers on a forage analysis are acid detergent fiber (ADF) and/or neutral detergent fiber (NDF) content. These numbers ultimately relate to the amount of energy available to support milk production, growth, and reproduction. The ADF content reflects the digestibility and amount of energy cattle can obtain from the forage. The NDF content reflects the potential intake of a forage. As the fiber content increases (both ADF and NDF), the digestibility, energy content, and potential forage intake decreases. These changes ultimately affect performance and profitability. Protein content is a distant second in importance to fiber content when determining which hay to purchase or feed to a group of cattle.

Relative feed value (RFV) is an index that compares the quality of a tested hay to full-bloom alfalfa hay that has been assigned a value of 100. Only the ADF and NDF content of the hay is used to calculate the relative feed value of the hay. The protein content of the hay is not reflected in the relative feed value. Within a type of hay, the higher the RFV, the greater the quality of the forage. Because alfalfa generally contains less fiber, alfalfa hay generally has a higher relative feed value than a grass hay at the same stage of maturity. Table 2 lists the different quality standards for alfalfa or grass hay and their corresponding nutrient composition.

Purchase Hay on Weight and Watch Moisture Content

Hay should be purchased based on weight and not size. As illustrated in Table 3, when bales are priced on size, the weight of the package greatly influences the price paid per ton.

In addition, hay should contain no more than 14% moisture or less than 86% dry matter. Wetter hays are more prone to molding, and you pay additional money for the water in the hay.

Dairy Quality Hay

High-producing dairy cows need alfalfa hay, which, after harvest, contains a relative feed value greater than 150. Hay or silage that tests lower than this will increase feed costs and decrease profitability for the dairy herd. Forage that tests lower can be fed to those cattle that require lower amounts of nutrients relative to the high-producing dairy cow. Table 4 lists the recommended uses for various qualities of alfalfa.

Posted Nov 12th

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