Adequate stocks for winter feeding

Rain on cut hay impacts quality

URBANA, Ill. — U.S. hay stocks are at high levels, which should provide plenty of inventory for livestock producers during the winter feeding period.

“It is difficult to talk in generalizations because the situations are so variable across the U.S.,” said Mike Rankin, managing editor of Hay & Forage Grower.

“On May 1, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported hay stocks were down slightly in 2017 relative to 2016, and that was the first time we’ve seen a reduction in hay stocks since 2013, following the 2012 drought,” he reported during a Hoard’s Dairyman webinar. “But hay stocks are still at historically high levels.”

In California, Rankin said, the price for premium hay is $30 to $40 per ton higher than last year.

“May is usually the highest month for hay prices, and as inventories build through the growing season, those prices come down and remain relatively steady through the winter,” he said.

Alfalfa Acreage

The USDA reported 226,000 more alfalfa and alfalfa-grass acres harvested this year compared to last year.

“That’s a forecast, so we won’t know what it actually is until we get through the growing season,” Rankin said.

“Total alfalfa exports through July, are up over 20 percent,” he reported. “Exports to China are being driven by their expanding dairy industry, so they have really picked up purchasing U.S. alfalfa, and this year Japan will be higher, as well.”

Across the Alfalfa Belt, there was more than an average amount of alfalfa winterkill this spring, Rankin said.

However, since dairymen knew about this situation, they had time to fix the problem during the growing season.

“They may have seeded more acres of alfalfa or harvested more acres of corn silage,” Rankin said.

“Virtually the entire Eastern U.S. had more rain than they cared to deal with during the early growing season,” he recalled. “And the major drought concern this year was in the Northern Plains, including North Dakota and Montana.”

When hay in a windrow gets rained on, it has a dramatic effect on forage quality, Rankin said, primarily the loss of soluble carbohydrates.

“The soluble carbohydrates leach out of the crop,” he said. “And when the crop gets rewetted, respiration kicks in again and additional carbohydrates are lost.”

Spoiled Feed

Cut hay that receives a rain is at risk for molds and mycotoxins.

“There is lower digestibility in the fiber, more ash and overall lower relative forage quality,” Rankin said. “Crude protein may actually increase because you’re losing carbohydrates, and the crude protein becomes a larger factor in terms of what’s left.”

The months of August and September were almost flipped this year.

“The month of August was relatively cool coupled with late-planted corn. There were a lot of farmers wondering if their corn was going to make grain,” Rankin said. “Then September was a very warm month, which probably saved a lot of corn, especially across the Northern U.S. for maturity and yield.”

“Midwest corn silage looks favorable this year,” said Mike Hutjens, University of Illinois dairy specialist emeritus.

However, if dairymen purchase drought-stressed or immature corn silage, he recommends buying it on a dry matter basis.

“If corn silage is $40 a ton at 33 percent dry matter, that equals 6 cents per pound of corn silage dry matter,” he said. “You may adjust for starch at a 30 percent base and also NDF digestibility at 55 percent.”

There are two types of flow agents dairymen can use if they have mycotoxins in their corn silage.

“The clay-based compounds are very effective for aflatoxin, which we might see some of this in the drought areas,” Hutjens said.

“The yeast wall extracts are effective when dealing with T-2 toxins, vomitoxin and zearalenone,” he said.