“If you still think relative feed value (RFV) is a good measure of forage quality, I’m not going to be able to help you today.”

Alfalfa hay sample tops SE contest

Forage Flash

An alfalfa hay sample submitted by Flatwood Farms, Murrayville, Ga., had the highest relative forage quality (RFQ) in this year’s Southeastern Hay Contest presented by Massey Ferguson

Fast drying preserves quality

Forage Flash

All forage loses dry matter and forage quality after it is cut. It is a fact of life. But the amount of loss is greatly influenced by subsequent practices

Too good to be true

Hay

When feeding hay or baleage to beef cattle, quality is king. However, can stored forage quality actually be too good?

In-hand forage quality

Equipment

Over the past decade, near-infrared reflectance spectrometers (NIRS) have gone from the lab to the field and can now fit into the palm of your hand

Fiber analysis is ever evolving

Hay

I have known Dave Combs, a dairy nutritionist with the University of Wisconsin, for many years

Don’t leave the leaves

Alfalfa

For the moment, let’s put harvest timing aside, though it plays a primary role in harvested forage quality. We’ll also leave alfalfa genetics on the sideline, reduced lignin or not

Forage quality drives beef intake

Forage Flash

When calculating winter-feed needs for cattle, correctly estimating hay or standing forage intake is essential. Forage quality determines the amount of forage consumed

Wide price spread between Supreme and Fair

Newsletter

Seth HoytAuthor of The Hoyt Report, providing hay market analysis and insight. In the past year, the difference between Supreme and Fair alfalfa hay prices delivered into Central California dair

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