First Cutting Hay Quality
I have taken in several hay samples this year. Some of those samples were from cool season hay fields which included mostly ryegrass fields. The first cutting warm season grasses included bermuda, bahia and dallis grass fields. I summarized all of these samples and put them into our quality calculator that shows where these bales would fit in a feeding program.
On average cool season hay has averaged 8% crude protein and 50% TDN while warm season grasses have averaged 10% and 54% respectively. In the table, if the box is green you are meeting more than 90% of the cattle's nutritional requirements, but if it is red you are below that. The number is the actual percentage of the requirement that you are meeting.
The table below shows how just that little bit of increase in protein and TDN will allow you to meet nutritional requirements of late gestation and lactating cattle. I have been impressed with our first cutting of warm season grasses this year, usually this is our lowest quality cutting. I have had some disappointed producers with their ryegrass hay. This is typical of trying to cut cool season grasses for hay, if you don't get them at the proper growth stage, you will have poorer quality hay. Ryegrass hay is better suited for haylage, where you can harvest at a proper timing even if the weather isn't cooperating.
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