News

Forage testing is a necessity

A forage specialist says he’s concerned about forage quality and says it’s a good idea to have the crop tested.

Keith Johnson with Purdue Extension says the weather challenges has likely compromised and deteriorated the energy and the protein values of the hay crop.  “It’s very, very prudent that people can’t feed that hay from this year like they might with other hay made in a timely fashion,” he says.  “They need to be wise about what class of animal it’s fed to in the right order.”

He tells Brownfield farmers will need to probe the hay and then send it off to a laboratory for analysis.  “Request that they have nutritional measures of moisture and protein and fiber values that can then be used to predict the energy values of that hay,” he says. 

Once producers have the nutritional details, he says they should work with an animal nutritionist to see if an energy or protein supplement is needed.