Making & Feeding Quality Hay

Wednesday, April 23, 2025

Consider The Age & Stage Of Production Of The Animal You Are Feeding

By Emily Mckinlay

For most ruminants, forage makes up a significant portion of their diet. In terms of hay, quality can be affected by numerous factors throughout the growing, harvest, storage and feeding process.

Producing sufficient quantities of high-quality hay can be critical to the cost of production for beef, dairy, sheep, and goat farmers. Assessing quality is the only definitive way that farmers can know if their hay meets the necessary standards for nutrition of their livestock.

Harvesting

Different species and animals at different stages of production will have varying requirements for hay quality and quantity.

“The biggest factor to consider is what type of animal they are feeding the hay to,” says Jarrett Johnson, a beef farmer and partner at B&L Farm Services in Chesley, Ont.

“If they are a spring calver, their needs are different than someone winter calving or backgrounding cattle. You are going to look at things a little different.”

There is a balance between quality and quantity that occurs throughout the forage growing season. “There is a point where, as a plant matures, the quality goes down,” says Johnson.

“It’s a balancing act between quantity and quality.”

Kristen Bouchard-Teasdale is the livestock and forage extension specialist for Manitoba Agriculture. She explains that this balance occurs due to changes in plant composition as it matures.

“Plant maturity is king when it comes to forage quality,” says Bouchard-Teasdale.

“As forage matures, the amount of stem in the total forage mass tends to increase. The leaf-to-stem ratio will decrease. As a structural component, stems contain fibre for support. Leaves contain less fibre as their job is to produce food for the plant.”

Fibre has three components: Cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin.

“Cellulose and hemicellulose are partially digestible in ruminants thanks to microbes located in the rumen. They can be partially broken down into useable energy,” says Bouchard-Teasdale.

The final component of fibre, lignin, is indigestible and cannot be broken down by rumen microbes. This means that if harvest is delayed, it will come at the cost of decreased quality in the form of increased fibre and decreased protein content and digestibility.

Plant species will also affect how hay quality changes over time.

“The quality of grass species will go down faster than alfalfa,” says Johnson. “If the hay stand is a higher percentage grass than legumes, you are going to want to cut it sooner for maturity. Quantity will keep going up to a point, but we want to hit the perfect stage for quality. That is typically more of a bloom stage if we are talking about legumes.”

Bouchard-Teasdale adds that farmers should select for species that will grow well and persist in their environment. This includes selection for winter hardiness in the Prairies.

She also recommends minimizing the dry-down time for hay to maximize quality.

“Hay begins to lose quality immediately, regardless of the weather. Focus on getting the plant to dry down quickly to stop plant respiration,” says Bouchard-Teasdale.

“When plants are cut, they continue to respire. It’s the process where sugar that was produced in photosynthesis is broken down into usable energy for plant cells to use for growth, reproduction, and life processes.”

Bouchard-Teasdale explains that respiration is highest when the hay is cut, at around 75 to 80 per cent moisture, and slowly declines until the plant has reached below 40 per cent moisture.

“The faster you can take down the moisture from 75 to 80 per cent to 40 per cent, the faster you can reduce energy losses due to respiration,” she explains.

This can be achieved by cutting hay at three to four inches off the ground to maximize air flow beneath the swath and separate it from ground moisture, proper conditioning at cutting, wide swaths, and proper raking.

A roller conditioner and raking at 40 per cent moisture are best for alfalfa-based forages, whereas a flail conditioner and raking at 25 per cent moisture is ideal for grasses. Conditioners should scrape or break the stems of legumes every two to four inches without bruising more than five per cent of the leaves.

Testing

After the hay has been cut and baled, taking all the right precautions still may not ensure high-quality hay. Visual inspection is also not enough to determine hay quality. Testing hay is a clear and quantitative way to measure the nutrition the hay provides and can determine any risks of moulds or toxins.

Johnson says that there are some benefits to testing hay early to know what you have and what you need to change for consecutive harvests.

“For dry hay, you can test it as soon as possible. If it’s fermented feed, ideally you would let it sit for three to four weeks. This includes haylage, wrapped bales, or Ag-Bags,” says Johnson.

“The nice thing about testing early is that if you are questioning quality, you can consider taking your next cuts off sooner than usual to compensate for that.”

If you are testing after haying season, Bouchard-Teasdale notes that feed quality can change throughout its time in storage.

“Feed quality can change as the season progresses, so it’s better to take samples as close to feeding or sale as possible while allowing time for those results. Typically, two weeks is enough time,” says Bouchard-Teasdale.

“Most beef producers test their hay in the fall, and that allows them to come up with a feeding strategy for winter, and they can source additional feed if it’s needed to meet animal nutrition requirements.”

When sampling, it’s important to get a sample representative of each category of feed. A single sample from one bale is not enough.

“When sampling, take core samples to create an average sample from each of your fields,” says Johnson.

“Some people would try to grab handfuls from bales, and that’s not as ideal as a core from the rounded side of the bale. Get representative samples from numerous bales and make it into a composite sample.”

Bouchard-Teasdale says that in the Prairies, some watershed districts and ag centres will have hay probes to create core samples available for use. Hay probes can also be purchased for between $100 to $500 for drill-driven models.

“Sample round bales from rounded sides at a square angle at a depth of 12 to 15 inches.

“Mix the samples in a pail really well and from that composite sample take a sub-sample.

“Seal it in a clean plastic bag, remove the air from the bag and label it with a sharpie to identify your name, the type of feed, the lot where it was collected and the date.”

She also recommends checking in with the business doing the analysis to see if they need any additional information and then storing the sample in a cool, dry location until it is shipped for testing.

Assessing quality

After hay has been tested and the results of the analysis are returned, producers can assess whether their hay meets the nutritional requirements of their animals.

Bouchard-Teasdale says that some key measurements to keep an eye on are dry matter, crude protein, energy content, neutral detergent fibre, acid detergent fibre, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, and magnesium.

“When you’ve sent away samples and the results come back, reach out to your nutritionist, local extension agent, or a vet to help interpret the results,” says Bouchard-Teasdale.

“You want to ensure you are meeting nutritional needs depending on the stage of production, age of the animal, body condition, hide thickness and hair coat. Weather conditions, like temperature, precipitation and wind speed, can also play a role. A feed that meets the requirements of a beef cow mid-gestation may not meet needs during lactation.”

She also notes that the Beef Cattle Research Council (BCRC) has a great tool for producers wondering if their feed meets the requirements of their cattle.

“They have a calculator. It doesn’t balance a ration, but it can evaluate if a single feed can meet basic requirements of cattle in normal circumstances,” says Bouchard-Teasdale.

“You can go to the BCRC website and pop the results of your feed analysis in, along with the class of cattle, and the calculator will light up green, yellow, or red, to indicate if it meets requirements.”

If the requirements aren’t met, producers could look at grouping their animals based on requirements, bringing in supplemental feeds, or feeding a blend of high- and low-quality hay.

“If we are talking about a cow herd, make sure thinner and older cows or younger cows are separate from third or fourth calvers that are easy maintainers,” suggests Johnson.

“There are different strategies to meet requirements depending on other feeds on the farm or available for purchase. They could blend the hay with rich feeds, like second- or third-cut hay, oats and peas, or corn silage. If they need grains but also need protein, they could buy in distillers’ grains or soybean meal. Sometimes a little urea can help bring the protein up, and lick barrels can help bring up microbial protein.”

Making good quality hay and knowing what it’s providing is critical to avoiding underfeeding livestock at important production stages. BF