what is the best hay to feed beef cattle

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By Heather Due southmith Thomas

During winter, drought or any other times that animals do not accept adequate pasture, hay is the mainstay of nutrition for cattle. Next to pasture, skillful quality hay is the most platonic feed.

Types of Hay

Hay falls into several categories: grass, legume, mixed (containing grass and a legume) and cereal grain straw (such as oat hay). Some of the more than common grass hays include timothy, brome, orchard grass and bluegrass. In some parts of the country fescue, reed canary grass, ryegrass and Sudan grass are mutual. In northern parts of the U.S., timothy is widely grown because it tolerates cold weather and grows early in leap. It does not do well in hot climates, however. In central and southern parts of the country you are more apt to find Littoral Bermuda grass, brome or orchard grass because these tolerate heat and humidity ameliorate.

Some hayfields consist of "wild hay" or "meadow hay" equally compared to "tame" hay grasses that have been planted. Many of the native or volunteer plants that grow in uncultivated hayfields are good, nutritious grasses that brand acceptable hay for beef cattle. Equally long as the plant mix is predominantly grasses of palatable types (rather than weeds or swamp grasses), meadow hay is quite adequate for winter feed—particularly for mature cows that don't demand high levels of protein. Some of these native grasses, when cutting before seed heads mature, are very palatable and high enough in protein content for calves and lactating cows, without having to add together a supplemental poly peptide source.

Cereal grain crops (especially oats) are sometimes cut while still green and growing, rather than waiting for the seed heads to mature for grain. If harvested properly, this makes practiced hay, especially when information technology is grown with peas (a legume). At that place is always some hazard of nitrate poisoning, however, if cereal grain hays are harvested after a spurt of growth following a drought period. The hay tin can exist tested for nitrate content if you lot are considering using this type of hay.

Legumes used for hay include alfalfa, diverse types of clover (such as reddish, ruby-red, alsike and ladino), lespedeza, birds-foot trefoil, vetch, soybean and cowpeas. Good legume hay generally has a college level of digestible energy, vitamin A, and calcium than grass hay. Alfalfa may have twice the protein and three times the level of calcium than grass hay. Thus alfalfa is often fed to animals that demand more poly peptide and minerals.

Early flower alfalfa (cut earlier the blossoms open) has nigh 18 pct crude protein, compared with ix.viii percent for early bloom timothy (before seed heads fill), 11.4 percentage for early flower orchard grass, and lower levels for virtually other grasses. Alfalfa cutting at full blossom drops to 15.v per centum rough protein, compared to 6.nine percent for tardily bloom timothy and 7.6 percent for late bloom orchard grass. Thus legume hay, cut early, is more apt to meet the poly peptide and mineral needs of young growing animals, pregnant and lactating animals than will many of the grass hays.

Nutritional value of hay is related to leaf content. Leaves of grass hay have more nutrients and are more digestible when the plant is immature and growing, and more fiber when the institute has reached full growth. Legume leaves, by dissimilarity, do non have the same structural function and don't modify that much equally the plant grows. Just the stems become coarser and more than fibrous. Alfalfa stems, for example, are woody, serving as structural support for the plant. Leaf to stem ratio is the most important criteria in judging nutrient quality in an alfalfa institute. The digestibility, palatability and food value is highest  when the constitute is young—with more leaves and less stems. Nearly 2/three of the energy and iii/4 of the poly peptide and other nutrients are in the leaves of a forage institute (whether grass or legume). Coarse, thick-stemmed hay (overly mature) has more than fiber and less nutrition than immature, leafy hay with finer stems.

If buying alfalfa hay, yous'll desire to know if it is start, second or 3rd cut (or afterward), and at what stage of growth it was harvested. If ownership grass hay, maturity at harvest will too brand a difference in its nutrient quality. Your option volition depend on the type of animals you are feeding, and their specific needs.

Hay for Cattle

Cattle can generally tolerate dustier hay than tin can horses, and tin can often consume a little mold without issues. Keep in mind, still, that some types of mold may cause abortion in pregnant cows. The quality of the hay needed volition besides depend on whether y'all are feeding mature beefiness cattle, immature calves, or dairy cattle. Mature beef cattle can get by on rather plainly hay—of any type—but if lactating they will demand acceptable  protein. Good palatable grass hay, cut while all the same greenish and growing, can be very adequate, but if grass hay is coarse and dry (with little vitamin A or poly peptide), you'll need to add together some legume hay to their diet.

Young calves have small-scale, tender mouths and cannot chew coarse hay very well—whether grass or alfalfa. They practise all-time with fine, soft hay that's cut before bloom stage; information technology not merely contains more nutrients, but is besides much easier to eat.

Dairy cattle need the all-time hay— with the virtually nutrients per pound— since they are producing more milk than a beef cow. Most dairy cattle volition not milk adequately on grass hay, nor on stemmy, fibroid alfalfa without many leaves. A dairy moo-cow needs to be able to eat every bit much as possible, and she will swallow more fine, palatable alfalfa hay than fibroid hay, and go a lot more nutrition from it.

If hay is expensive, beef cattle tin can often get by eating a mix of straw and some type of protein. Straw (backwash from harvest of oats, barley or wheat) provides energy — created past fermentation breakdown in the rumen. A small-scale corporeality of alfalfa or a commercial protein supplement can provide the needed protein, minerals and vitamins. If buying harbinger to feed, select good quality, make clean straw. Oat straw is the nearly palatable; cattle like it quite well. Barley straw is not every bit well liked, and wheat straw is least desirable as feed. If feeding cereal grain hay (cut while nevertheless dark-green and growing, rather than at maturity, equally straw), be careful with this type of hay, and have it checked for nitrate levels, to avoid nitrate poisoning.

In cold conditions, cattle practice ameliorate if fed extra roughage (grass hay or straw), since they accept a large "fermentation vat" (rumen). During the breakdown of fiber in the rumen, rut and energy are created. During cold weather you demand to feed your cattle more roughage, rather than more legume hay.

Cost

As a general rule, good quality legume hay costs more grass hay (due to higher protein content), unless you lot alive in a region where legume hay is the primary crop. Relative cost for hay will vary around the country, with cost reflecting supply and need — along with freight costs to booty information technology. In drought years when hay is deficient, it will price a lot more than on years when at that place is plentiful supply. If hay must be hauled very far, the toll of fuel (in freight costs added to the base of operations price) will make the total very expensive.

Tips on Selecting Hay

Hay quality can vary greatly, depending on growing conditions (wet or dry conditions, hot or cool). Hay that grows slowly in cool weather condition is oftentimes more fine and palatable, with more nutrients per pound, than hay growing chop-chop in hot atmospheric condition. Hay that grows fast doesn't take as much time to absorb minerals from the soil, for instance, and some types of plants mature also quickly; they may be likewise coarse and stemmy (and by blossom stage, with less food quality than greenish, growing plants) by the fourth dimension the hay is harvested. Other factors that affect nutritional value include found species, fertility of soil, harvesting methods (whether the hay was crimped and conditioned to dry faster, losing less leaves and nutrients during drying) and curing time.

One style to assess maturity of alfalfa hay is the snap test. If a handful of hay bends hands in your hand, the fiber content is relatively low. The hay volition exist more than nutrient dense and digestible (with less woody lignin), than if the stems snap like twigs.

Hay samples tin be tested; cadre samples from several bales can be sent to a hay testing lab for assay. This is e'er wise when trying to evaluate hay for protein or mineral content. You should likewise open a few bales and look at the hay within, to cheque texture, maturity, color and leafiness. Check for weeds, mold, dust, discoloration due to weathering (to know if the cut hay was rained on before being baled and stacked). Check for heat (and smell the hay) to know if it'south fermented.

Also check for foreign material in the bales, such every bit rocks, sticks, baling twines or wire. The latter can crusade hardware disease in cattle if ingested wire pokes through the gut and creates peritonitis. Cattle often eat hurriedly and don't sort out small strange objects. Baling twines in hay can besides exist hazardous if eaten. Calves often chew on and eat twines, which tin create fatal blockage in the gut.

Rained-on hay that had to be redried will be wearisome in color—yellow or chocolate-brown, rather than bright green. All hay will weather; the sun bleaches the outside of the bales. You often can't tell the quality of hay by looking at the outside. The inside should still be green, nevertheless, even if the outer edges have faded due to exposure to rain and lord's day.

Smell also gives a good clue to quality. Hay should odour good, non musty, sour or moldy. Flakes should carve up easily and non be stuck together. Moldy hay, or hay that heated too much after being baled volition usually be heavy, stuck together,  and dusty. Alfalfa hay that has heated excessively may be brown and "caramelized," smelling sweet or a trivial bit like molasses. Cattle like it, but some of the nutrients accept been cooked; much of the protein and vitamin A take been destroyed. Good hay will be uniformly dark-green and odour good, with no brown spots or moldy portions.

Try to select hay that has been protected from weather past a tarp or hay shed, unless you are buying information technology directly out of the field subsequently baling. Rain on a stack tin can ruin the top layer or two, soaking in and causing mold. The bottom layer of bales may besides exist moldy if the stack sabbatum on ground that draws moisture. Elevation and lesser bales will counterbalance more (adding toll) and have spoilage.

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Source: https://www.iamcountryside.com/fences-sheds-barns/selecting-hay-for-cattle/

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