FEED & NUTRITION

It is 3 o’clock in the afternoon, and the hay is just finally dry enough to bale. On the first round in the field, my pocket vibrates just as my radio sitting in the cup holders starts to blast; it must be bad news.

In the same way stores take inventory to assess their performance, plan for the future and detect any unaccounted-for loss of product, on-farm forage inventories can reap similar benefits for farms.

I know just enough about social media to be dangerous. I don’t spend a lot of time online, but I do belong to some forage groups, and I enjoy following some of the questions and debates. Recently, a fertilizer discussion caught my eye.

There’s a lot of pressure on custom harvesters. In a small window of time, they are rushing to get multiple clients’ forages ensiled – often across large areas with a dog-tired crew by season’s end.

Earlier this year, social media lit up with concerns from consumers over the consistency of butter and the potential link to animal feed supplements containing palm byproducts.

To effectively condition hay or haylage, we need to understand the forage drying process: