From our farm and family to yours, we wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!
This Thanksgiving, we reflect on all that we are thankful for – our family, our health, our friends and also, on how fortunate we are to be living our dream – running a cattle farm. Running a cattle farm is not always sunshine and rainbows, but we always try to find the silver lining in ALL of it. We are thankful for each day and for each opportunity we have to grow and learn in the beef cattle business!
In Part 1, we discuss the importance of, and the need for, testing the quality of your cattle’s winter hay. In Part 2, we dive into the methodology of collecting a forage sample. We also introduce Dairy One and their Forage Testing Laboratory, based in Ithaca, New York.
Today, we look into receiving and understanding your forage analysis results. We will also discuss how to apply those results toward your winter feed rationing. We will be focusing specifically on the result components of Dry Matter (DM), Crude Protein (CP) and Total Digestible Nutrition (TDN).
How do you receive your forage analysis results? Dairy One’s Forage Testing Laboratory will send your forage analysis results via email, with the option to also receive copies by fax or mail. I imagine that other Forage Testing Laboratories throughout the country operate in a similar manner.
Your forage analysis results will vary, depending on the forage testing you selected. For each sample submitted, you will receive a forage analysis. If you submitted four samples, you will receive four separate reports. It is very important that you label your samples when submitting them. Be sure to use those same sample names when filling out your Forage Sample Submission Form.
The forage testing is very thorough, testing for a wide-range of nutritional components in each forage sample. For the purposes of this blog series, I am narrowing down our nutritional focus to Crude Protein and Total Digestible Nutrition results, on a Dry Matter basis.
Your forage analysis report will look similar to the one pictured below. Looking at the report, you will see two colums of results. The first column is on an As Fed basis, with the second column on a Dry Matter (DM) basis. When making ration calculations, you want to use the values from the Dry Matter basis. As I discussed in Part 1 of this series, the Dry Matter basis takes into account the moisture content of the forage sample. Each component is presented in terms of a percentage (%). For example, in the Forage Sample #1 Picture, the moisture content is 8.0%. Therefore, Forage Sample #1 is 92% dry matter. All further calculations would need to be made based on this percentage of 92% DM. Looking further down the DM column, we find that CP and TDN values are 6.4% and 59%, respectively. Again, the percentages are different from the As Fed values.
Consider that this cow’s sole forage source is represented by the forage sample analysis in the Forage Sample #1 Picture, below. She requires at a minimum, 8.6% CP, and the forage analysis shows us that her forage has only 6.4% CP. The TDN value is better, at 59%, and meets her TDN requirement of 54.6%. This tells us that she will need a higher amount of dry matter (hay)/day or a protein supplement or some combination of both. What supplement you decide on (e.g., more hay, protein cakes, barley malt sprout tailings, etc) will be individualized to each operation, of course.
Forage Sample #1
Do you have enough hay to feed out more each day, to meet that crude protein requirement? If not, do you have access to supplemental feed that would bridge the crude protein gap?
How do we use the values from our forage analysis report to calculate how much extra supplment may be needed?
Example 1
First, lets start with the hay that was sampled. Let’s figure out how much more of that hay you would need to feed/day to meet your cow’s 8.6% CP requirement.
Our cow requires approx. 24.4lbs of Dry Matter/day. Our forage sample has a dry matter value of 92%.
Equation:
Lbs DM required (24.4) / % DM of the feed (0.92) = 26.5lbs hay/day
Looking at the equation above, we see that our cow will require approx. 26.5lbs hay/day.
As stated earlier, we already know that she will need more crude protein than what will be provided in that 26.5lbs/hay/day. If we want to meet her crude protein needs by the hay alone AND using the same hay that has 6.4% CP, we would need to feed her an additional 8.5lbs hay/day.
How did I get to that value of 8.5lbs? I explain below.
First, we need to calculate how many lbs of Crude Protein is required per day for our cow.
We take our required Dry Matter requirement of 24.4lbs/day * 0.086 (This is the percentage required of Crude Protein)
This gives us a value of 2.1 lbs/day required of Crude Protein.
Next, we need to run the same equation as above but substitute our Crude Protein value from our forage analysis result.
Dry Matter requirement of 24.4lbs/day * 0.064 (This is the percentage of Crude Protein in our forage analysis results).
This gives us a value of 1.56 lbs. This tells us that the hay tested in our forage analysis only contains 1.56 lbs of the 2.1 lbs required of Crude Protein.
Now, we take 2.1 lbs – 1.56 lbs and determine that we need to supplement for an additional 0.54 lbs of Crude Protein per day.
Finally, we take 0.54lbs/0.064 (This is the percentage of Crude Protein in our forage analysis results) and this takes us to our value from above of an additional 8.5 lbs/day required to meet our cow’s Crude Protein needs.
Example 2
Another way to supplement for Crude Protein, besides feeding-out more hay, would be to provide a protein supplement. For us, we favor using barley malt sprout tailings to provide for our cows’ extra protein needs. These tailings contain approx. 20% protein.
We know from Example 1 that our cow will need an additional 0.54 lbs of Crude Protein per day.
Therefore, we can divide:
(additional lbs/day of protein needed) / (percentage of protein in the barley malt sprout tailings supplement)
0.54lbs / 0.20 = 2.7 lbs/day required of barley malt sprout tailings per day to meet our cow’s Crude Proteins needs.
I hope the above information, as well as the previous two posts in this series have proved helpful in assessing the quality and quantity of your cattle’s winter feed.
Hay bale grazing site #1 after first storm, November 13, 2019
As it happens every year, winter has officially begun here on the cattle farm. Technically, this is still “fall-time”, but mother nature doesn’t pay attention to a calendar. Dreams of the snow and ice waiting until December, are just that – dreams. For some reason, I am having a harder time adjusting to the start of winter than I did last year and the year before. I am pretty such it has to do with the fact that last winter was BRUTAL for this part of the country. The absolute worst winter in a very long time. Spring was wet. Summer was a nice break but also so incredibly buggy (rare August hatch of black flies in addition to the usual May-hatch). We did have a few nice fall days and now, winter. All in all, our spring, summer and fall brought a lot of rain, which was great for pasture growth and for the haying season. There just wasn’t enough of those nice sunny, bug-free days, though…..
The boys and I made our rounds on Veteran’s Day, enjoying the bare ground and NO SNOW. I explained to the boys that by this time tomorrow, we would be full into winter and that the pasture grounds would not visible again for a good 6 months. Sure enough, the next day saw us with school canceled, as a major storm dumped snow on us all.day.long. Hello, winter. It has certainly not been long enough since we last visited….
So, yesterday morning found me chopping ice off of hay bales and removing heavy ice from hay bale grazing wires.
Chop, chop, chop, take a breath, chop, chop, chop, contemplate my life choices, chop, chop, chop, and there goes that top frozen layer…bye bye and hello, nice hay below… See you again this afternoon!
Ice can really weigh down your wires and take away the tension. This was the aftermath of storm #2. Neither the cows nor I were impressed. But, life continues, as does work on the farm. You gotta hunker down and get it done.
We feed out our hay via hay-bale grazing during the winter months. The location for our hay-bale grazing sites rotates each year, allowing us to add fertility back into the soil, promoting increased grass production and ultimately, allowing us to get more summer and fall grazing days out of those same pastures.
Summertime fun! This pasture used to be a field full of TREES and weeds and moss. After chopping down the trees for firewood and using it as a winter grazing site, it is now a productive pasture!
We have had great success with this method. It has been really incredible to see a previously under-performing section of pasture or pastures, flourishing, with good quality grass and clover and not choked with weeds, following a winter hay-bale grazing season. Good validation for what we are trying to do.
Keeping pasture improvement in mind and knowing that winter loves to come early to Northern Maine, we placed a certain number of hay bales in a separate pasture, away from our main hay-bale grazing sites. We knew that our cows would rotate into this final pasture as winter approached and having a hay bale site already set up, would make the transition much easier for them and for us. With the unpredictability that winter can bring, we were certainly glad that we planned this way.
hey, mama’s!
The morning of November 13th, found me at the hay bale site, calling “hey mama’s!”, to the herd way across the snowy pasture. The cows know our voices and they know when we start calling, they better start coming. Slowly but surely, they made their way through the snow, to the hay bale site and started chowing down! Good, Mama’s!
Today’s post will focus on the methodology of collecting a forage sample, the tools/supplies needed, and where you can send your forage sample for analysis.
Their website is extremely user-friendly, and their instructions for collecting a forage sample are thorough and easy to understand. Further, they even provide forage analysis kits and other supplies to help with the sample collection process.
Forage samples need to be submitted in a quart-sized plastic bag within a Dairy One Forage Analysis Laboratory mailer envelope. For our purposes, we will be discussing the methodology of collecting a HAY sample. Please see the guide for Collecting a Forage Sample, for all other forage types.
Steps for Collecting a Hay Sample
Hay Probe Tool
If you don’t already own one, you will need to purchase a Hay Probe tool. This tool will allow you to bore (or make a hole), through each hay bale. Using a hay probe to collect a core sample will allow for the most accurate nutritional breakdown of each of your particular sample lots. Also, the hay probes on the market today are extremely user-friendly and can be used to collect many samples, both efficiently and effectively by a single person.
Determining Different Sample Lots (if applicable)
Be sure to determine your sample lots.
Let’s say you purchased hay from two different hay producers, and their hay bales are from two different cuttings, a month apart:
We have Producer A, with cuts from July and August, each from a separate field, and we have Producer B, also with cuts from July and August in two different fields. That gives us 4 LOTS to sample.
Permanent marker to label each bag with Lot Name (e.g., Producer A – July Hay)
Use your hay probe to bore into each bale in the appropriate location (see here for instructions for square and round bales). Empty the hay probe’s cleanout rod into your clean bucket, and then move to your next bale, adding each sample to the same bucket as you go along. After completing each lot, you should have 1 bucket with all of your samples. Mix the samples by hand in the bucket and fill your sample bag with approximately 1 pound of material (the lab recommends 2-3 good handfuls). Squeeze out as much air as possible and seal the bag. Repeat this entire process for each of your lots, being sure to keep your samples labeled.
Place each labeled, quart-sized plastic zip lock bag sample into your Dairy One Forage Analysis Laboratory mailer, along with a completed submission form and place in the mail. The lab will test your samples based on the type of forage testing you select. We always select the Forage NIR testing, which is $18.00/sample. This analysis provides us with Crude Protein and Total Digestible Nutrition, as well as a wide plethora of other nutritional information on a Dry Matter and an As-Is basis. Results will be sent to the email that you provide on the submission form. You can also receive copies by fax or mail.
Forage costs are arguably the highest expense for any cattle operation, especially for those farmers whom feed-out hundreds of hay bales each winter. When you are budgeting for, and estimating your winter hay needs, it is important (nutritionally and financially) to know the actual quality of your hay. Each hay bale purchased is a small investment into your operation. You are putting forth money (and a lot of it for many of us) into forage/hay purchases and in turn, you hope that your forage/hay will provide the right rations of nutrition for your beef cattle. Ultimately, your “pay-off” will be represented by those same beef cattle thriving throughout the winter hay feeding season and then producing a healthy calf come calving time, and continuing to thrive and produce, year-after-year.
When I talk about a cow thriving and producing, I am thinking in terms of this: “thrive and produce” = a gestating cow that can maintain her body condition (as best as possible) during the winter, by consuming forage/hay that is a high-enough quality to allow for healthy fetus development of her calf, lactation production, and delivery of a healthy, strong calf. Then, post-calving, she needs to come into estrus/start cycling and be bred-back, all the while nursing her calf.AND for first-calf and second-calf heifers, we expect them to do all of this, PLUS continue to grow themselves. A tall order, indeed!
We expect a lot out of our beef cows, and therefore, we need to provide them with the quality of forage/hay/feed they need to thrive and produce.
Does quantity equal quality? No, it does not. You can have all the hay bales that you require according to your calculations (see here for calculating winter hay) but if the hay quality does not meet the nutritional demands of your animals, you very likely will need to feed out more forage/hay/feed supplement per day/per head than you initially calculated for.
And, what do we mean by the term “quality”?
Have you ever looked a bale of hay and wondered, “what really is in this hay?” “How nutritional is this hay? And how does my hay meet the nutritional demands of my animals?
We have only been in the beef cattle business and thus, dealing with hay, for six years. As such, we continue to learn and grow in regards to what we look for when buying hay. We have started to get a very small sense of the quality of our hay by sight and smell. Hay that has more of a “fresh-cut smell”, than a “musky, moldy smell.” We have had some bales with mold all the way through. Moldy hay will likely provide your cattle with little, if any, nutritional value, and more importantly, may not be safe to feed your your pregnant cows (moldy hay has been known to cause fungal abortions in pregnant cows). The more hay bales you look at, the more you can start to develop a visual basis, for which you can compare to bales from different producers/fields/times of year. We can look at two different hay bales, from either two different producers or the same producer but different fields and/or different cut, and visually see a difference in what we perceive is the quality of those bales. Then, we can discuss those differences until we are blue in the face. In the end, we could think we feel confident that we are feeding our mama cows hay with the right nutritional break-down but are we really????
What nutritional break-down are we looking for in a bale of hay?
Throughout this 3-part blog series, I will be referring to several nutritional terms:
Dry Matter (DM): Simply put, the term dry matter is the amount of hay, that when tested, is moisture-free. When a hay sample is tested, you will receive a forage analysis report, and one of the variables quantified, is the amount of moisture in the forage sample. Say that a particular sample of hay is 15% moisture and 85% dry matter. When making beef cow feed ration calculations, you need to use the dry matter composition. We will discuss this in more-depth later on in this series. I will refer to Dry Matter as DM.
Crude Protein (CP): Crude protein is another variable quantified in a forage/hay analysis. The percentage of crude protein tells us how much nitrogen is present in a given sample, representing both true protein and non-protein nitrogen. For example, a 1200-pound beef cow, in the pre-calving stage (60-90 days before calving) will require a diet of approximately 8.6% crude protein. (https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/400/400-012/400-012.html). This value will vary depending on the age of your cow (first-calf heifer versus mature cow, time of year, weather conditions, and where they are in the production cycle (pre-calving, postpartum, lactating (nursing a calf)and pregnant (bred-back after calving), and gestation (pregnancy stage after weaning calf, not lactating).This publication, by the Virginia Cooperative Extension, provides an extremely detailed and very useful guide for nutritional requirements (CP and TDN) for beef cows throughout the entire production cycle for mature cows, 1st-calf heifers, and more.) I will refer to Crude Protein as CP.
Total Digestible Nutrients (TDN): The TDN percentage in a forage analysis tells us all about energy: The total amount of the digestible protein, lipid, carbohydrates and fiber components present. Knowing the TDN percentage allows us to better decide if our forage is meeting the energy requirements of our cattle, and further, is a key component in determining and balancing winter forage rations. I will refer to Total Digestible Nutrients as TDN.
Continuing with our example from above (Crude Protein needs) of a 1200-pound beef cow, in the pre-calving stage (60-90 days before calving), this cow’s diet should be comprised of approximately 54.6% TDN. Our hypothetical, 1200-pound beef cow, in the pre-calving stage (60-90 days before calving) will require around 24.4lbs Dry Matter intake/day, with a nutritional break-down of approximately 8.6%/2.07lbs/day Crude Protein and 54.6%/13.2lbs/day Total Digestible Nutrients. (https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/400/400-012/400-012.html).
How we approach the management of our cattle herd is an ever-evolving work in progress, and there will never be a one-size-fits-all mold. What worked last winter may not work this winter and so forth. Thus, I think part of the draw and challenge for us is that there always is and always will be new things for us to learn. The all-important topic of Winter Hay/Forage/Feed Quality is always on our minds, no matter the time of year. On that note, I thank you for taking the time to read this post. Understanding the importance of – and how to test for – the quality of our cattle’s winter hay is critical in ensuring top performance and production of our beef cattle. I encourage you to please check out the rest of this 3-part series, as we post it. Thank you!
