Harvest & Storage

For producers in the western U.S., winter comes with a few nuisances especially reserved for states containing numerous herds of wildlife.

Why work hard and spend money to produce a quality product – and then throw a quarter of it away? That is what many producers do by not investing in quality storage options for their harvested hay.

Ideally, well-fermented silage should not have a strong odor because the main organic acid from the fermentation – lactic acid – is nearly odorless.

The old saying, “If it works the way it is, why change it,” might not be making life any easier for farmers. After all, if you could change the way you put up hay to reduce the number of days in the field, why wouldn’t you?

This year’s growing season is a great example of how forage yield and quality can vary across the country and from year to year.

Last time I described a popular method of scoring forages called relative feed value (RFV). But RFV has severe limitations. RFV ignores protein content and does not account for differences in fiber digestibility.