Blessed with long days and cool nights

By Gary Sliworsky
OMAFRA Rep.

In our area we are blessed in summer with long days and cool nights which just happens to be ideal for producing high yielding, good quality forages. It is quite simple to tell whether or not you had good yields from your hay fields, but it is more difficult to ensure that the hay you took off is good quality.
In recent years, the use of Relative Feed Value (RFV) has become a common industry standard of expressing forage quality. RFV is measured by a feed analysis. It determines the acid detergent fiber (ADF) which indicates the digestibility of the forage. This, combined with the neutral detergent fiber (NDF) test, which indicates the potential intake of the forage, determines the RFV. The ideal RFV is 150 - the industry standard for prime hay. In addition to a high RFV, a high quality hay should have small stems, soft texture, celery-green color and a 10% to 12% moisture content.
Your chances of getting a high quality hay depend greatly on when it is harvested. Determining a proper forage harvest date is imperative because nutritive value drops as the crop matures. The date of the first cut will often determine the quality of subsequent cuts. Even a slight delay in the first cutting can have negative repercussions on the rest of the growing season, possibly slowing regrowth and reducing future yields. Further, since the first cut is the highest-yielding, it is very important to harvest this at the correct stage.
Ideally, the decision when to take the first cut should be based on plant development. If you have alfalfa in your hayfields, keep an eye out for when budding starts. Harvesting at the bud stage allows you to get more cuttings per year, increase production and improve the quality of your forage.
After cutting, drying the hay as quickly as possible adds to the quality. One suggestion is to cut early in the morning to get the maximum drying time in one day. Standing forage has a moisture content of 85%-90% but this can drop to 60% within 8 hours under good drying conditions as moisture is lost through cut and bruised ends and cell pores. The second stage of drying continues until the hay is down to about 18%, but this stage takes 24 to 36 hours, again, under good drying conditions.
It is recommended that you store all your harvested hay under cover as quickly as possible. Hay sheds are the most economical form of storage but tarps will work as well.

Dates to Remember
July 27 – Soil & Crop Tour. Starts 11:00 a.m. at the Emo Research Station
July 27 – Emo Research Station Open House, 7:00 p.m.