Harvest & Storage

Excellent-quality hay has a high nutritive value and animal intake. Hay quality can differ widely within a single species grown in the same location due to management.

You cannot till or no-till your way out of a soil quality problem. Additional organic inputs such as crop residue, manure and cover crops are needed to increase organic matter and water-holding capacity, improve aggregate stability and water infiltration and build soil quality in many other ways.

Rain makes grain, and forages too, according to Ohio State University Extension beef expert Stan Smith. The old saying about precipitation and crop production applies especially to stockpiled forages in a year when frequent rains precluded forage producers from harvesting hay at its peak quality.

Dairy nutrition is a continuously evolving science that attempts to explain and predict the complex interactions between the feed a cow consumes and the measurable outputs of production including milk, weight gain and reproduction.

As we come into the fall season once again, the days get shorter and the rain becomes more frequent. The increase in precipitation and lower evapotranspiration from less daylight and lack of growing crops typically results in high soil moisture levels in fall.

Pasture conditions continue to decline in the drought-stricken southern Great Plains states, making it increasingly likely that much of the hay required for winter feeding of livestock will be imported from outside sources.