Harvest & Storage

The length of cut of forages, whether it is haylage, corn silage or another forage crop, has an impact on the final forage quality in several ways.

Management decisions that impact forage availability, such as forage species/cultivar to plant, fertilizer and weed control needs, along with herd genetics, are very important to the bottom line of any cattle farm.

Typically forage producers refer to the two establishment periods for forage crops as spring and fall. Actually the second period is mid-to- late summer, not fall.

Nobody wants to mess with a wet dog or a wet bale of hay. Baling wet hay can increase moldiness, heat-damage crude protein or occasionally result in hay fires.

Producing forage with an ideal dietary cation-anion difference (DCAD) for dry cows can be a challenge. For dry cows, DCAD values less <0 mEq per kg are desirable, with -50 to -120 mEq per kg considered ‘ideal’.

The cutting schedule a grower imposes strongly impacts the overall profitability of an alfalfa operation due to its direct effect on yield and forage quality.