These are important questions that can't be answered just by looking, smelling,and touching the hay and silage. Many of you may have harvested forages you don't normally feed, like drought damaged corn silage, hail damaged soybeans, road ditch hay, CRP hay, or even weedy alfalfa. How do you allocate and feed these forages to your livestock to minimize costs and purchased supplements while still maintaining top production?
Testing
You start with information. This year, maybe more than ever, forage testing is important. It is the only way you can find out for sure what the feed value is of your hay and silage.
Collect a sample of every type of forage you have. Test it for protein content, nitrates and its TDN level and then use the results to determine what supplements are needed.
Use lower quality forage for cattle with low nutrient demands, like dry mature cows, and feed high quality forage to cattle needing more nutrients, like first calf heifers and cows nursing calves. Then calculate how much supplement you need for each feeding situation.
Bruce Anderson
Extension Forage Specialist
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