Joe Heese and his colleagues at Farm Partners Supply believe alfalfa can be profitable enough to grow on their rich Iowa farmland.

“In dollars per acre, it'll compete favorably with corn and soybeans,” says Heese, the Harlan, IA, farming partnership's hay operations manager. “But our land value is too high to make grinding hay. We're going after the No. 1 quality. That's our primary focus, and we need all the scientific tools to make it happen.”

That's one reason the partnership bought its own forage-testing equipment in June 2005. Another was to gain a competitive advantage in the dairy hay market.

“We wanted to do something nobody else does,” says Heese. “We can put a piece of paper in every truck that leaves the farm saying what the hay tests that day. We can also test our equipment, our production practices and predict cutting dates.”

Farm Partners Supply invested about $60,000 in the testing equipment, including an NIR analyzer from Perten Instruments, Inc., Springfield, IL; a gram scale; a grinder; and a microwave oven for drying wet samples. They hired Dairyland Laboratories, Arcadia, WI, to help develop and maintain their NIR calibrations.

The testing procedure is fairly simple. Heese grinds a dry hay sample to a fine powder, measures a small amount onto a petri dish, and slides the dish into the analyzer. Results appear on a screen almost instantly.

“A little guidance and training are needed, of course,” says Heese. “And you have to be conscientious and particular because it doesn't take much to sway the results. You have to do everything exactly the same every time. Even if you just shake the petri dish a little bit or something like that, you'll change the sample.”

Testing takes less than 10 minutes, but drying wet samples lengthens the process. Microwave drying of scissor-cut samples, done at low heat to prevent burning, takes several hours. Last year, Heese bought a food dehydrator that can do the job faster with less babysitting.

He worked closely with Perten Instruments and Dairyland Labs early on when his system was being calibrated. In 2006, he periodically sent samples to the lab for retesting to make sure his results were accurate. If he was having a problem, he talked by phone with a lab representative. “In two or three minutes we got it zeroed back in,” he reports.

With the ability to get same-day forage-test results, Heese is evaluating every aspect of the partnership's haying operation for its impact on hay quality.

“We're doing everything we can to take as many negatives as possible out of the equation,” he says.

His first priority is to “nail cutting dates.” He tests scissor-cut samples frequently — sometimes daily — to learn how fast alfalfa quality drops after bud stage under various soil types, fertility levels, etc. Detailed records are kept on every field. He's learned that, while most fields should be cut at 26- to 28-day intervals, more fertile fields should be cut as often as every 21 days.