Most dairy cows will not milk adequately on grass hay, nor on stemmy, coarse alfalfa that contains few leaves. Most experts recommend mixing alfalfa with grass hay, rather than relying exclusively on alfalfa hay. Add to Favorites . In addition, hay should contain no more than 14 percent moisture or less than 86 percent dry matter. Lately there has been a lot of interest in grass-fed milk or milk that is produced by cows fed only grass on pasture or hay. In northern parts of the U.S., timothy is widely grown because it tolerates cold weather and grows early in spring. Alfalfa is beneficial because it is an excellent source of both dietary energy and protein, and it has more digestible fiber and higher mineral content. In Loerch’s herd, the cows didn’t lose as much body condition over the winter when fed corn with hay, had calves that were 5-7 pounds heavier, but had no increase in calving difficulty. But for an animal that just needs forage to keep the rumen functioning and to provide some calories and nutrition, a grass forage may be the better choice. On a tonnage basis, what has it cost you to raise alfalfa or alfalfa/grass forage for your milking cows? In general, a miniature milk cow is a third to half the size of the standard milk cow. Second-cut alfalfa usually has a higher stem-to-leaf ratio but is lower in crude protein—about 16 percent on average. Density is important to maximize dry matter intake with every bite. But all hay tends to weather because the sun bleaches the outside of the bales. Alfalfa hay with a relative feed value of 200 contains considerably less fiber than hay with a slightly lower relative feed value. As the fiber content increases (both ADF and NDF), the digestibility, energy content and potential forage intake decreases. Sheep, like goats, prefer fine, leafy hay and will not eat coarse hay. Winter nutritional requirements. There is more to feeding a dairy cow than just setting it loose in a field. Alfalfa stems, for example, are woody, serving as structural support for the plant. The ADF content reflects the digestibility and amount of energy cattle can obtain from the forage. Cows efficiently use the high levels of protein, calcium and high-quality fiber in alfalfa for producing milk. Thus, inorganic sources of calcium, such as calcium carbonate or dicalcium phosphate, must be added to the rations of lactating dairy cows. For the first 68 wk of lactation, most dairy cows are in negative calcium balance, ie, calcium is mobilized from bone to meet the demand for milk production. If an alfalfa stand produces 4.5 to 5 tons per acre, it would cost $66 to $73 per ton of forage. All Hay Is Not Equal: Choose Your Livestock’s Carefully. The nutritional value of hay is related to leaf content. For square bales of hay, 15 to 20 separate bales from each lot of hay should be cored using a hay probe. If you don’t have any type of roof to put your hay under, you can create a well-drained area (by building up the floor with gravel or wooden pallets) and cover the stack with tarps. Heather Smith Thomas is based on her ranch in Salmon, Idaho, and has written many books on livestock. Feeding a total mixed ration (TMR) helps a dairy cow achieve maximum performance. This can disrupt the microbes that help the animals digest their feed. The three breeds of dairy cows most used for milk in this country are Jerseys, Guernseys and Holsteins. The best way to check hay is to open a few bales and inspect it closely. The protein content of the hay is not reflected in the relative feed value. Forages are the foundation for building diets for the dairy herd. Of course, dairy cows require lots of energy to preserve body condition and maximise milk yields. Oat straw is the most palatable; cattle like it quite well. The best way of avoiding pregnancy toxaemiais to ensure your cattle are well fed and remain at body score 3. Peter Roome/Flickr. Shutterstock. It is … Particularly fine-stemmed, leafy alfalfa (rabbit hay or dairy hay) is too rich and palatable for horses (they generally overeat on it) and does not have enough fiber content for proper digestion. “Dry hay is good feed for cheese making,” according to Kehler. As browsers, goats eat a wide variety of plants when roaming free, and will eat some of the weeds and other undesirable plants that other animals will not. If buying grass hay, maturity at harvest will also make a difference in its nutrient quality. If feeding cereal grain hay (cut while still green and growing, rather than at maturity, as straw), have it checked for nitrate levels to avoid nitrate poisoning. The later cuttings will have the finest stems, growing more slowly during the cooler fall season. Always select good quality, clean straw when buying it for feed. For a 100-cow herd, this reduction in milk production could decrease milk income by $600 per month. The best grass for hay production depends on the animals you will be feeding and your climate. These cuttings are too rich (too many nutrients per pound, with very little fiber) for most horses, unless you are just adding a little bit of it to the diet of a young orphan foal or an older horse that has poor teeth and cannot chew stemmy hay. The bottom line is that dairy farmers need to buy quality hay that has been tested for its nutrient content. Although there are differences between cuttings, quality is most important. Coarse, thick-stemmed hay (overly mature) has more fiber and less nutrition than immature, leafy hay with finer stems. Mature sheep can get by on good-quality grass hay, but lambs do better with a legume—harvested while still growing so that it has finer stems. Unless you are buying directly out of the field after baling, try to buy hay that has been protected from weather by a tarp or hay shed. On the flip side, cow hay could mean dairy-quality alfalfa, a pure legume forage that is rich in protein, often over 25%, and therefore inappropriate for most classes of horses. Required fields are marked *. The smell of hay will give a clue to quality. If we compare the difference in energy supplied by 5 lbs of hay with an RFV of 150 versus 115, the lower-quality alfalfa hay (RFV = 115) supports 1.5 fewer lbs of milk. In order to use these supreme quality hays, consult your nutritionist to make sure you have adequate amounts of effective fiber in the diet. Hay falls into several categories: grass, legume, mixed (grass and legume) and cereal grain straw (such as oat hay). Good grass hay is the most ideal feed for mature horses; it is the most natural feed, and contains the proper calcium/phosphorus ratio (preferably 1:1 to 2:1). However, there are significant differences in the variety, quality and availability of hay, which can make feeding your livestock a time-consuming chore. Early bloom alfalfa (cut before the blossoms open) has about 18 percent crude protein, compared with 9.8 percent for early bloom timothy (before seed heads fill), 11.4 percent for early bloom orchard grass, and lower levels for most other grasses. Studies show that feeding dairy cattle low-DCAD (dietary cation-anion difference) forage, such as Timothy Hay can be the best way to proactively prevent these conditions. You may need different qualities of hay for different horses—leafy hay for weanlings, for instance, and more mature hay for adult horses that do not need such fine hay. This decrease in milk production can be seen even when as little as 5 lbs of alfalfa hay is fed. Alfalfa contains a greater concentration of calcium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, sulfur, iron, zinc and selenium than grasses. Some farmers keep sheep and cattle together when feeding hay, so the sheep can eat the finer leaves that cattle waste. Dairy cows need the best hay—with the most nutrients per pound—since they are producing more milk than a beef cow. To accurately determine the quality of hay for sale, a representative sample must be taken using a hay probe. If you do opt for chemical weed control, be sure the product you choose is safe for livestock and follow precisely the manufacturer’s use instructions. Cows eat on average 44 pounds (20 kgs) of food every day. High quality silage is an abundant source of energy, protein and fibre that aids rumen health. High-producing dairy cows need alfalfa hay, which, after harvest, contains a relative feed value greater than 150. daily intake of hay; NEm=net energy of maintenance (megacalories). Your email address will not be published. Not bad for a bunch of old grass, is it? It is also the most costly alfalfa. If you must use alfalfa hay for all your horses, be selective in the hay you choose. Thank you for watching! Table 2 lists the different quality standards for alfalfa or grass hay and their corresponding nutrient composition. If ingested, wire can cause “hardware” disease in cattle by perforating the gut and causing fatal peritonitis because they do not sort out foreign materials before eating. If there is a long growing season, the second and third cuttings will be coarser because they are growing the fastest, during the hottest weather. To calculate reference cow, take the average peak milk of older cows and add the daily average of all cows and divide by 2. Mature beef cattle can get by on rather plain hay of any type but lactating cows will need adequate protein. Forage testing laboratories currently certified for either wet chemistry or NIR analysis can be found on the NFTA website ( www.foragetesting.org ). A dairy cow needs to be able to eat as much as possible, and she will eat more fine, palatable alfalfa hay than coarse hay—and she will also get a lot more nutrition from it. Timothy hay is noted for being high in fiber and energy content, while also being noted for being relatively low in protein content. In central and southern parts of the country you are more apt to find coastal Bermuda grass, brome or orchard grass because these tolerate heat and humidity better. Timothy Hay for Cows Many who raise dairy cattle find Timothy hay to be a key ingredient in an overall feed program. But more important than the amount of food is that they get the right kinds of food to keep them healthy. A small amount of alfalfa, or a commercial protein supplement, can provide the needed protein, minerals and vitamins. Factors that can affect nutritional value include plant species in the hay, fertility of soil, harvesting methods (whether the hay was conditioned or crimped to dry faster and lose less leaves and nutrients during drying) and curing time. Cattle in late pregnancy when the pasture is … Progressive Dairy magazine is printed 20 times each year for forward-thinking U.S. dairy producers. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. These numbers ultimately relate to the amount of energy available to support milk production, growth and reproduction. Hay or silage that tests lower than this will increase feed costs and decrease profitability for the dairy herd. Energy is the nutrient that most often limits performance in dairy or beef cattle – not protein. Evaluating how well the feeding program has worked and implement changes to improve the program, if necessary. Other popular dairy cow breeds are Brown Swiss, Ayrshire and Red & White, a breed genetically related to the Holstein and similar to it. Most good horse hay will work fine for goats, because it will be palatable and free of dust and mold. Summary: This timeless Feed and Nutrition article details four steps for developing a sound nutritional program: 1. How many tons of milk cow hay have you produced per acre in the past three years? During the cold winter months when pastures contain scant forage, hay is the typical diet for cattle, horses, sheep and goats. Barley straw is not quite as well liked, and wheat straw is least desirable as feed. Since the NDF content of alfalfa is lower and more digestible than NDF from grass forages, this NDF is more rapidly cleared from the rumen, which stimulates intake. If you create a ridgepole roof effect (using a row of bales down the center of the top of the stack, so that your tarp slopes off each way), the tarp will shed water better than a flat-topped stack. The quality of the hay you feed will also depend on whether you are feeding mature beef cattle, young calves or dairy cows. In a bucket, mix the samples thoroughly, and send a quart of material to a certified forage testing laboratory for testing and analysis. This, in turn, helps buffer the pH changes in the rumen and helps decrease the incidence of health problems, such as ruminal acidosis. Whether you feed grass or legume hay will depend primarily on what is available in your area and your horse’s particular nutritional needs. Provide forward-thinking dairy producers with practical, unbiased dairy management tips, timely news and thought-provoking opinions. The idea was to add some of the delicious butterfat of the Jersey, but to use the Dexter to pack some meat on its bony frame. Focus on Forage – Vol 3: No. This period of negative calcium balance does not appear to be de… per cow to as much as over 11000 lbs. Alfalfa hay is often recommended for dairy cattle, but may not be a good fit for beef cattle, since it can lead to bloat. In addition, hay should contain no more than 14 percent moisture or less than 86 percent dry matter. Brian grows as … Alfalfa is an excellent forage for high-producing cows. One way to assess the maturity of alfalfa hay is the snap test. Just like a confinement cow, higher dry matter intakes improve production. Third-cut alfalfa typically has a higher leaf-to-stem ratio because of slower growth during the cool part of the season. Do you have the land and labor resources to harvest the quality of alfalfa or alfalfa/grass hay needed by the milking herd? A hay shed is ideal because you can build up the floor with gravel for good drainage so the entire haystack is kept dry. If goats are fed coarse hay, they may eat the leaves but not the stems. Changing to a legume hay suddenly can make an animal sick, or cause a ruminant animal to bloat. You often cannot tell the quality of the hay by just looking at the outside of a bale. Classical studies done at the University of Wisconsin with mid-lactation dairy cows fed alfalfa hay as the sole forage found that for each 1 percent increase in NDF above 40 percent, the amount of alfalfa hay consumed by these cows decreased by 0.5 lb, and milk production decreased by 1 lb per day. However, some types of mold may cause abortion in pregnant cows. The award-winning magazine's editors and contributors provide compelling features, helpful articles, insightful news analysis, and entertaining commentary about the people, practices and topics related to a dairy lifestyle. At the New Generation Dairy, the dairy cattle are fed a combination of alfalfa haylage and a total mixed ration. Thus alfalfa is often fed to animals that need more protein and minerals. The concentration of minerals is greater and more available in alfalfa forage harvested at earlier stages of maturity. Dairy Cattle New Generation Supplements 2020-06-30T13:11:56-05:00. There is always some risk of nitrate poisoning, however, if cereal grain hays are harvested after a spurt of growth following a drought period. Testing forages to determine their nutrient content 2. Cows eat best in the grazing positions and the bunk surface should be smooth. This is accomplished by feeding a nutritionally balanced ration at all times, allowing cows to consume as close to their actual energy requirements as possible and maintaining the physical or roughage chara… They do best with fine, soft hay that’s cut before bloom stage; it not only contains more nutrients, but is also much easier to eat. If the probability of correctly treating a cow (finding and injecting her with the appropriate product on the correct day) is 95 percent, then the probability that all cows are handled correctly at each of four handlings is only 81.4 percent (0.95 x 0.95 x 0.95 x 0.95). Would it have been cheaper to purchase or raise the amount of hay needed? Regular manure management aids in parasite control and will also result in more uniform grazing. It should smell good, not musty, sour Also, you will be less apt to have spoilage from a leak in the tarp if the water can run off readily. Feeding high-quality forages results in greater feed intake and, as a result, dairy cows produce more milk, and they oftentimes can produce this milk more economically. Feeding additional grain with lower-quality forages did not increase production to the amount seen when early cut, higher-quality forages were fed with lower amounts of grain. 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