Air May 26, 2004

Thank you Gary, and good morning everyone.

Just a quick reminder of the wheat variety plot tour tonight at AgriPro's research facility on Ascher Road starting at 7 p.m. I hope to see you there! As if you needed something else to do right now - it's time to be putting up your brome hay, if you are serious about having high quality brome hay! In fact, if you haven't cut your brome already, you are on the downhill side for quality.

I'm taking a lot of samples of alfalfa and brome and prairie hay this year harvested at various stages of growth, stuff that got rained on, etc. What I want to do is simply follow up on some research done in Kansas and other states regarding quality of hay. I feel that far too often, making hay is low down the priority list and you basically wind up with what you managed for. And if hay quality was low on your priorities, then hay quality is often going to be low also. I already have one sample back of alfalfa cut at the very start of bloom, and baled up before it got rained on. The quality of this particular cutting was just phenomenal with crude protein of 22% and a relative feed value of 210. I'll keep you posted as the summer progresses to let you know how these samples came back. We all too often feed our hay as if it came out of a box with a uniform guaranteed analysis. Sometimes you are feeding the right amount, sometimes too much and sometimes not enough. But if you haven't tested, it's a wild stab in the dark and most times you're going to be lowing money from over or under feeding. Let's go back to that cutting of alfalfa that was 22% protein. That's half the value of soybean meal based on protein content. Is that hay worth $135 or $140 a ton? It may be and it may be worth more than that in some cases. I strongly encourage you to sample every cutting of hay and even every cutting from every field if it got cut and baled at different times. Then you can start to match up the feed you have on hand with the feed requirements of your livestock at various time through the year. Depending on the test you need, a forage analysis is $13 to $20. Borrow the hay probe from the Extension Office, hook it up to a cordless drill and pull samples from 1/3 to ½ of your big round bales, and we'll help you get it analyzed. The savings from balancing your rations will easily pay for the test!

This is Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent, with Ag Outlook 2004.

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