Ingredients

Forages and Concentrates

- hay, silage, straw, high fibre by-products

- lower in energy and not as digestible

- source of fibre, protein, macro minerals, energy

- grains, oilseeds, protein sources, fats and oils, mineral and vitamin supplements, additives

- high energy, highly digestible ingredients

- bromegrass, fescue, orchardgrass, timothy

- can be grazed as pasture or harvested for hay or silage

- can be native or tame

- corn, barley, oats, rye

- harvested as silage or green feed

- alfalfa, clover, peas, beans

- harvested as hay or silage

- fix nitrogen into the soil

- the intake potential and nutrition quality is largely dependent on what stage of growth they're in

- older plants and longer stems and smaller leaf proportion. Their fibre (lignin) content increases and CP decreases (all bad things!). Decreased digestibility and not as tasty for the cows, so their intake goes down

cool season

bromegrass, fescue, orchardgrass, timothy

warm season and cool season

buffalograss, cordgrass, switchgrass

wheatgrass, needlegrass, canarygrass

Smooth Bromegrass

- a perennial cool season grass

- drought hardy

- survives extremes in temperature

Orchardgrass

- bunch-type, tall-growing, cool-season perennial grass

- tolerant to shade, fairly drought resistant with moderate winter hardiness

Tall Fescue

- best adapted cool-season grass

- accumulates growth/stockpiles so you can graze it in the fall and winter

Timothy

- cold-hardy, short-lived bunchgrass

- palatable, cows love to eat it!

- not drought-tolerant. Wants irrigation and fertilizer to do well

barley, corn, oats, rye, and triticale (a wheat-rye hybrid)

- grows best in well drained, fertile soils

- awns on the stems are spikey and can decrease palatability

- 2-row and 6-row varieties

- highly palatable

- high digestible energy but low in digestible protein

- good pasture crop because of high productivity

- becomes unpalatable with maturity

- can be grazed or hayed or silaged

- wheat/rye cross

- dairy cows don't like it, so it's not very popular

vegetative phase, transition phase, and reproductive phase

in the reproductive phase just before heading out, when the developing seed head begins to push through the sheath of the flag leaf. Lasts a week to ten days

When the grain kernels on the head develop. A white, milky fluid appears when you squeeze a kern. Lasts ten days

when the kernel is well formed and only filled with starch. No milky fluid comes out, only a rubbery doughy substance. Lasts a week to ten days

Alfalfa

- a perennial legume that can survive in hot and cold climates

- in silages and hay

- can't withstand drought for long periods. Can't tolerate acidic soil or high water table

- can cause frothy bloat in ruminants

1. Vegetative - growth of stems and leaves

2. Bud - buds are green immature flowers, no purple flower petals

3. Early Bloom - one node with one open flower

4. Late Bloom - More nodes with open flowers

Pre-bud is most digestible (66.8%)

Late-bloom and mature are least digestible (57.5% and 55.8%)

Red Clover

- can be good alternative to alfalfa for silage

- alfalfa will outyield it under ideal conditions

- where alfalfa winterkill is a problem, red clover better tolerates bad drainage and low pH soil.

- similar feed quality to alfalfa

- Difficult to cure as hay without being dusty or moldy

15% or less

mowing/swathing

drying

raking

baling

Mowing

- Mowers have rollers that crimp the stems which speeds up drying. Swathers don't crimp.

- Mowing should be done in afternoon when sugar concentration is highest

- Dessicants can be sprayed on to promote drying

Raking

- rolls hay over so the bottom of the windrow can dry out

Baling

- can be small squares, large squares, or round bales

alfalfa: early bloom stage

grasses: boot stage

- cellular respiration (4-15% of initial DM may be lost)

- leaf shattering

- rain damage

- vitamin A losses

- heating: forms Maillard products

- stacking high-moisture hay can cause spontaneous combustion and fires!

Dehydrated Alfalfa

- "dehy"

- alfalfa is chopped green, partially wilted, then dried in rotating drums

- minimal nutrient loss

- bright green with high Vit A activity

cereal crops cut at an immature stage, then dried and baled or left on the field for swath-grazing

barley: milk to soft dough

oats: early to late milk

wheat: milk to soft dough

fall rye: boot to heading

triticale: heading to late milk

Silage

- forage conserved by anaerobic fermentation

- plant material is chopped and packed to exclude oxygen

- lactic acid depresses pH to 4

- bacterial growth is inhibited

Too dry: exclusion of oxygen is difficult and moulding/heating occurs. Not enough fermentation will occur

Too wet: Clostridial fermentation may produce butyric acid, lowering feed intake

DM should be 30-35% (for corn silage 32-35%)

Silage effluent (wet silage)

- Wet silage is bad because when its piled, pressure squeezes out water and many soluble sugars, proteins, and minerals are lost

- harvest crop at optimum maturity

- wilt crop as quickly as possible to desired DM content to preserve nutrients and promote good fermentation

- chop forage to optimal size (1/2"-1")

- use silage additive to promote efficient fermentation

- rapidly pack to exclude air, pack tightly

- seal silo or pit ASAP after filling

- prevent air penetration during storage and feed-out

- they add fast growing homofermentative lactic acid bacteria that dominate fermentation, giving higher quality silage

- speed up fermentation and improve shelf life

- lower pH, acetic acid, butyric acid, and ammonia but have higher lactic acid than non-treated silage

- fill in progressive wedge, packed in 15-20 cm layers

- packing density of 225 kg DM per cubic meter