It is like walking a fine line. Weather, timing, pests and mechanical damage can all be factors that impact the quality of harvested alfalfa hay bales. But once the hay is in the bale, it is also important that you don’t just guess about the quality of product you have. Dairymen and livestock producers want to optimize performance, so knowing what they are feeding is crucial. Visual analysis is often not enough. You need to test your hay to be certain, said Tracey Erickson, South Dakota State University Extension dairy field specialist.

Erickson spoke about proper hay sampling techniques at the 2017 SDSU Forage Fiesta Field Day on Aug. 24 at the Southeast South Dakota Research Station near Beresford, S.D. While visual inspection is part of the quality equation, not everything can be known by looking at the bales. “Visual inspection of hay can tell us a lot,” Erickson said. “You can tell if the hay has been rained on and could possibly have mold growth and if there are weed seeds potentially within the hay. We can learn if there may be foreign material present, such as pop cans, plastic or garbage, which can cause digestive upset or other health issues. We can also learn visually about the leaf to stem ratio, which can be some indication of quality.”

However, by sampling hay bales, you know exactly what you are feeding or purchasing to feed to the livestock. “It will give you a more accurate picture of the nutrients available through that feedstuff,” Erickson said. “This is important when balancing a ration. In addition, it is important in cost savings, so that additional money is not spent on unnecessary feedstuffs or nutrients that are already present in the diet. Or, on the other side of the coin, you will know what you will need to supplement instead of guessing.”

To get the most out of hay analysis, sampling must be done correctly. “Identify lots or cuttings of hay from each field separately,” Erickson said. “For example, say you have 100 large round bales from a second cutting on a particular field. I would suggest pulling a sample from every 10th bale and combining them for a representative sample.”

VISUAL INSPECTION: You can learn a lot about the quality of hay by simply visually inspecting it. “You can tell if the hay has been rained on and could possibly have mold growth and if there are weed seeds potentially within the hay,” said Tracey Erickson, SDSU Extension dairy field specialist. But actual testing will give a much more accurate reading on the actual nutrients in the feedstuff.

If you are going to wait to feed the bales at a later time, you might want to test the hay shortly before you plan to feed it. If you are selling the hay, sample as close to the time of sale as you can to give an accurate test, Erickson said.

To test baled forages, all you need is a sharp hay probe, a clean bucket, sample bag and a permanent marker. If you are sampling round bales, place the hay probe on the side and core toward the center of the bale. For square bales, sample from the butt ends of the bales. Erickson suggested sampling eight to 10 cores from each lot of large round bales and 20 cores from each lot of small square bales. Combine the samples of each lot in a pale, mix them together and seal the cores into gallon size plastic bags.

Properly label the bags with a permanent marker to be shipped to a testing laboratory. Always include your personal contact information on each bag, along with sample lot, date and what forage the sample contains. If a Near Infrared Reflectance Spectrometry analysis is requested, you will obtain results for relative feed value, relative feed quality, percent dry matter, crude protein, acid detergent fiber, neutral detergent fiber, digestible NDF, lignin, crude fat, ash, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, total digestible nutrients, net energy for gain, lactation and maintenance, and non-fiber carbohydrate.

“If you are not in the habit of testing your hay, just get started,” Erickson said. “It is better to know, than to guess what you have for forage and then leave money on the table.”

Learn more by contacting Erickson at [email protected].