|
|
 Kentucky's
Producers Focusing on Hay Quality
By
Laura Skillman
PRINCETON, Ky., (Sept. 6, 2006) – This year’s hay production is
much better than a year ago thanks to timely rains. Also,
producers are putting more emphasis on this crop than they did
in years past, which is attributing to improved quality.
Hay production in 2006 is estimated to exceed 6.5 million tons,
according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National
Agricultural Statistics Service, Kentucky Field Office. Kentucky
is the largest cattle state east of the Mississippi River, and
hay and forage production is vital to the state’s cattle
industry.
“We are having a much better year for making good quality hay in
Kentucky,” said Tom Keene, hay specialist with the University of
Kentucky College of Agriculture. “For the most part, we’ve had
timely rains and had the ability to get our hay up. There have
been some timely windows of opportunity for three or four
cuttings of alfalfa and now a second cutting of grasses,
something we did not have in 2005. At this time last year many
producers were feeding hay stocks they had made earlier in the
year and many were quite tense about if we’d have enough hay.
This year, I feel very good that we will have enough hay to feed
the livestock in Kentucky and maybe even have some excess.”
Commercial hay producers are also having a good year, Keene
said. The Midwest and Deep South are suffering through drought
conditions and are in need of hay. If a producer has the
resources to market hay outside of Kentucky, this is a good
opportunity to do so, he said. However, the right packaging is
necessary to ship the hay.
“Kentucky producers are becoming better managers of their hay
crop,” he said. “When tobacco was king, hay was a secondary item
on the agenda and it got secondary billing in terms of
management, fertilizer and so forth. But I think, now producers
are coming to the realization that producing quality hay is an
opportunity for them not only in terms of feeding their
livestock more economically but also potentially feeding more
livestock and selling their surplus hay.”
Having hay tested for quality is essential, otherwise producers
do not know which hay to allocate to which livestock. If they
put up extremely nice alfalfa or alfalfa mix hay, they might not
need to feed that high-quality hay to their dry cows. Instead,
they can sell the higher quality hay and feed the rolled bale
fescue to the cows. A hay testing program is available through
the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, and the information can
be found on its Web site at http://www.kyagr.gov. KDA can list a
producer’s hay for sale on its Web site once it has been tested.
“We have been and continue to place a lot of emphasis on
quality,” said Garry Lacefield, UK forage crops specialist. “One
of the greatest advances I’ve seen in the past decade plus, for
being able to capture and store more of our high quality spring
growth, is round bale silage. As you go up and down the roads
you are seeing more and more of this out there. Producers are
realizing that this one tool, which they can implement in most
beef cattle operations, does not require as long a window to get
their forage harvested. We are seeing much higher quality
product be available for feeding because of the round bale
silage.”
Many farmers have also taken advantage of cost share money
through the tobacco settlement to build or retool existing
buildings for hay storage, Keene said. An estimated $15.8
million has been allocated to counties for this program, he
said.
“More producers are realizing they are losing hay by storing it
outdoors and are taking advantage of these funds to further
improve their hay operations,” he said. “We know we can lose 33
to 50 percent of round bale hay stored outside and when you feed
it, you lose even more. It doesn’t take long to put a pencil to
that and see that by putting it in a structure you can either
bale less hay or feed more animals. It can pay big dividends.” |
Contact: Tom Keene, 859-257-3144
Garry Lacefield, 270-365-7541, ext. 202 |
|
The UK College
of Agriculture, through its land-grant mission, reaches across
the commonwealth with teaching, research and extension
to enhance the lives of Kentuckians. |
Questions/Comments, e-mail the
webmaster
Copyright © 2001-2006 University of Kentucky, College of Agriculture,
Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service |
News Home
Other Headlines This Week
More
News
RSS Now Available
for those
using news aggregation programs
College News
|
