|
Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot | I understand it would be hard to make a ration out of a small amount of it. But why is it you have some dairys that are demanding high test hay, and paying a good premium for it, the higher the better. While at the same time you have other guys who say they can't use it? Talking to brokers they are using the higher end stuff to blend in with valley hay or some by product that is low test, basically like you said using it as a protien supplement.
Last guy I sold high test hay to was wanting to use it in place of a meal of some sort (cottonseed I believe) as they were using a lot of high moisture grape by product and needed more hay in the ration to make the rumen work. Nutritionist said the meal was too hard on them. There is a lot of things that go into building the rations for these dairies. The variety of feeds they end up using at times is amazing.
Keep in mind, it wasn't as high test as we are talking here. 61 CA TDN is about as high as I've ever seen, and it was almost too leafy to handle as dry hay. Hard to imagine much higher than that. We try not to have to grow high test hay. In our area, letting the hay grow a bit more and taking three long cuts increases the tonnage substantially over four short cuts... IF you can market it. | |
|
Question for the Dairyman or commercial hayman..Alfalfa?
