2005 Year in Review

From the Fields

The focus of this column will be two forage topics that have been discussed at recent meetings.

First, how to get hay to dry faster? Dan Undersander, University of Wisconsin Extension forage specialist, outlined management considerations for getting hay to dry faster. Sunlight has the least impact and is mainly responsible for increasing the surface temperature of hay. Temperature has less influence than wind speed and humidity. Humidity is the most important factor of drying hay. Wind speed becomes important to remove the moistened air away from the hay windrow.

According to Undersander, the one of the fastest ways to dry hay is to spread it out as thin as possible to allow more airspace for evaporation of water and to structure the windrow or swath to allow wind to blow through it as much as possible. Also, the waxy layer on the alfalfa stem must be broken along its length rather than just at the cut ends. This will allow moisture out of the stem.

Lastly, hay laying on the soil will not dry as well as hay up off the ground. In fact, hay lying on the ground may even soak up water from moist soil much like a sponge.

In summary, to get hay to dry faster Undersander suggests spreading it into a wide swath and keeping the swath up off the ground. This practice will reduce the drying time of alfalfa by 50 percent or more compared to putting the alfalfa directly into a windrow. Faster drying reduces the likelihood of rain damage, and another benefit from faster drying is less loss of starches and sugars from the leaves. Minimizing the loss of starches and sugars will maintain the nutrient content and palatability of the hay.

Secondly, avoid turf varieties for forage use. When deciding on varieties for grazing and hay, be sure to select forage varieties and not turf varieties. As Dave Barker, Ohio State University (OSU) indicated in the recent OSU Amazing Graze newsletter using turf varieties for forage is a bad idea for several reasons.

Turf varieties will not yield as well as forage varieties. Turf varieties of tall fescue and perennial ryegrass invariably contain toxic endophytes that can have a detrimental effect on the health and performance of livestock. Turf varieties have a high density of short and small tillers that are less suited to forage production. Lastly, turf varieties are not selected to have the high quality that is expected from forage varieties.

Keep turf varieties in the yard, and forage varieties in the pasture and hay fields.

by  Editor, theCity1.com
February 25, 2005