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Hay & Forage Grower
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Rick Mooney, Editor, eHay Weekly, at
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Managing Editor, fholin@hayandforage.com
For specific information from past issues of eHay Weekly and
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The clock is ticking for hay growers looking to enter the 2009
Southeastern Hay Contest. Deadline for entering is Sept. 30. Contest
winners will be announced at the Sunbelt Ag Expo at Spence Field in
Moultrie, GA, on Oct. 20-22.
Entries for this year’s contest have been trickling in at a “fairly
normal pace,” reports contest organizer Dennis Hancock, University of
Georgia extension forage specialist. “As of early August, we had about
100 entries,” he says. “But it’s still a bit early. Most of the
entries usually come in during the last two weeks or so.”
Open to hay growers in 13 southeastern states, the contest dates back
to 2004. “With 195 entries last year, we were down a bit (from 255
entries in 2007),” he says. “But that was probably because of high
fertilizer prices and drought.”
Modifying the contest to reflect changes in forage growing trends in the
region has played a big part in its growth, Hancock says. “One change
that has really increased the number of entries was the addition of the
grass and legume baleage categories. The growing use of baleage in the
South has resulted in more and more baleage samples coming in as
entries. However, the biggest change has been the increase in popularity
of growing alfalfa in the Deep South during the last three years or so.
This has really stepped up the competition in the perennial
peanut/alfalfa hay category and the legume baleage category.”
Increased grower recognition of the value of participating in the
contest has also helped boost entries. “Contest winners get a lot of
notoriety – during the expo itself, on extension Web pages devoted to
forage production and in major farm magazines. And those who don’t win
still benefit. It allows them to assess how well their management is
doing relative to their peers.”
Rules and entry forms for this year’s contest are available at www.caes.uga.edu/commodities/fieldcrops/forages/events/SEHC/SEHC.html.
Hancock reminds those intending to participate to submit their entries
through a county extension agent and to use a single package for the
entry, entry forms and analysis fee to ensure all materials are received
by the lab at the same time. Additional information is available at www.georgiaforages.com.
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gives you the latest electronic conveniences and push button simplicity,
the new T6000 Series tractors from New Holland are built for you. T6000
tractors are a natural choice for haying operations and heavy loader
work. To learn more, see your local New Holland dealer or call
1-888-290-7377. www.newholland.com/na
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Experts from the U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center, University of
Wisconsin and other research centers will be presenting cutting-edge
information at a series of seminars during this year’s World Dairy
Expo in Madison, WI. Among the topics to be covered during the daily
seminar sessions are using whole-farm management of crop/livestock
systems to reduce the phosphorus index, determining whether a custom
operator should harvest your forages, finding a fair way to price for
standing hay and corn silage and reducing ash in hay and haylage.
The seminars will begin on Wednesday, Sept. 30, and continue through
Saturday, Oct. 3. For a complete listing of seminar topics, schedules
and speakers, click
here.
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August was a busy month for regional and state hay-show organizers
in many parts of the country. Here’s a recap of what went on at some
of the most high-profile events:
Missouri. Disagreeable weather early in the growing season
didn’t discourage southwestern Missouri hay growers from entering the
Ozark Empire Fair Hay Show in Springfield. “There were 43 entries in
the show, which is the most in the last 10 years,” says University of
Missouri extension livestock specialist Eldon Cole. “Considering the
rather poor haymaking weather in May, the interest in this year's show
is encouraging.”
Brothers Evan and Nicolas Dotson and their dad, Earl, of Marionville,
MO, grabbed Champion Hay honors in the show. The Dotson entry was a
straight alfalfa, second-cutting sample harvested June 25. The relative
feed value (RFV), which accounts for 60% of the contest scoring, was
209. The total digestible nutrient (TDN) value was 70.4% or 0.73 when
rated on net energy for lactation (NEL). The crude protein reading was
23.9%. All values are on a dry matter basis.
For more details on the show and this year’s entries, click
here.
Pennsylvania. Rainy weather made haymaking in the Keystone State
nearly impossible and that was reflected in the number of entries in
this year’s Pennsylvania Forage and Grassland Council Hay Show. “The
total number of entries (102) was about 40 fewer than entered the show
last year,” says Marvin Hall, Penn State University extension forage
specialist. “It was the fewest entries since 2004.”
Randy Ziegler, Fredericksburg, was named champion in the field-cured
division; Bieber Newhard Farms, Nazareth, grabbed top honors in the
heat-dried division; and Nevin Rice & Son, Blain, won the preservative
division. All three entered later-cutting alfalfa.
Averaged across all samples, crude protein in this year’s show was
16.4%, acid detergent fiber (ADF) was 37%, neutral detergent fiber (NDF)
was 53% and relative feed value was 111.
Wyoming. Dave Hinman of Hardrock Farms, Wheatland, was named
Premier Exhibitor and Best in Show winner at the Wyoming State Fair Hay
Show in early August. The show displays Wyoming’s high-quality dairy
alfalfa, mixed hays for cow-calf producers and the best grass hay for
the high-end horse marketplace.
Hinman and four other top growers will move on to participate in the
World’s Forage Analysis Superbowl, which culminates at the World Dairy
Expo in Madison, WI, Sept. 29-Oct. 3. The Wyoming Business Council pays
the entry fees for all five entrants.
For more information on the Wyoming State Fair Hay Show, contact Scott
Keith, Wyoming Business Council livestock and forage program manager, at
307-237-4696 or scott.keith@wybusiness.org.
For more on the World's Forage Analysis Superbowl, see the advertisement
below or
click
here.
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 Enter Forage Superbowl, Win Cash
Cash prizes totaling more than $17,000 will be awarded in the 2009
World’s Forage Analysis Superbowl at the World Dairy Expo in Madison,
WI, Sept. 29-Oct. 3. The winners of six hay, haylage and corn silage
categories, two new quality categories, plus the grand champion forage
producer and top first-time entrant all will receive cash. Sept. 3 is
the contest entry deadline. For rules and entry forms, go to www.foragesuperbowl.org. or
call 715-758-2178.
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Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is setting up an advisory
committee to review key issues impacting the dairy industry. Once
appointed, the 15-member committee will review the issues of farm milk
price volatility and dairy farmer profitability. The committee will also
offer suggestions and ideas on how USDA can best address these issues to
meet the dairy industry's needs.
The committee will be made up of producers, representatives of producer
organizations, processors, handlers, consumers, educators, retailers and
state agency personnel involved in organic and non-organic dairy at the
local, regional, national and international levels.
Nominations for committee members are due Sept. 28. To learn more about
the committee and the nomination process, go to www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/DairyAdvisoryCommittee.
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- World Ag Expo, a major farm show held in Tulare, CA, in
February, is inviting farmers and ranchers in 11 Western states to
participate in the 2010 World Ag Expo Forage Challenge. To learn more
about this new event, which features alfalfa hay, standard corn silage
and brown midrib corn silage categories, go to www.worldagexpo.com/General-Info/Forage-Challenge.htm.
- The 2009 edition of the Colorado Hay Directory is now available
online. The directory features 100 state hay producers and brokers as
well as companies providing hay-related products and services. Go to www.coloradoagriculture.com
or www.coloradohay.org.
- This year’s version of University of Wisconsin-Extension’s
Farmer to Farmer Hay, Forage and Corn List is up and running online.
Purpose of the list is to put state farmers looking to buy and/or sell
corn and forages in touch with one another. Go to farmertofarmer.uwex.edu.
- New studies from the University of California on the costs of
producing sudan silage, sudan hay and sorghum silage are now available.
Access the studies by visiting www.coststudies.ucdavis.edu
or by phoning 530-752-1517.
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Kansas
With a cooler- and wetter-than-normal growing season to date, there’s
an abundance of medium- to low-quality alfalfa hay in the state, reports
Steve Hessman, USDA Market News reporter in Dodge City.
At the start of first-crop harvest, he notes, there was a narrow price
spread between dairy-quality alfalfa hay and grinder hay. “There
wasn’t a lot of incentive for growers to shoot for high quality, so
they went for tonnage figuring they could make up for it in subsequent
cuttings. As the season went on, though, we continued to get moisture.
It was hard to put up high-quality hay. Now the price spread has widened
a little. We’ll see what happens with this last cutting.”
On the demand side, feedlots in southwestern Kansas have been backing
off on hay purchases. Overall cattle placements are down, and there’s
also a higher percentage of cattle on finishing rations (requiring less
hay than rations for lighter, growing cattle) in the lots. “We’d
like to be moving 13,000-14,000 tons of hay a week into those
feedlots,” says Hessman. “But for the last year or so, it’s been
more like 10,000-11,000 tons. Multiply 2,000-3,000 tons by 52 weeks, and
that’s 100,000-150,000 tons of hay that has to go looking for a
home.”
The closing of two large dairies in western Kansas has also crimped
demand. “Between the two of them, we’re talking 15,000-20,000 dairy
cows.” On the upside, some alfalfa hay has been moving out of the
state to drought areas in southern and central Texas. Lining up trucks
has been a bit of a problem, Hessman reports. “Also, a lot of the
Texas buyers aren’t set up to handle large 4 x 4 x 8’ bales. Most of
the hay moving in that direction is medium-sized 3 x 3’ or 3 x 4’
bales.”
Net result of the supply-demand imbalance: The price of dairy hay in the
state’s major alfalfa growing areas as of mid-August backed off to
$130/ton. That’s down from $140-150/ton this spring. Some dairy hay
moving out of Kansas to the East was still fetching a top of around
$150/ton. “They weren’t huge movements by any means,” says
Hessman. “We’d be glad to have a few more loads moving.”
To contact Hessman, phone 620-369-9311 or email steve.hessman@kda.ks.gov.
Wisconsin
Sulfur deficiencies in some fields have held back alfalfa yields in
southern Wisconsin this growing season, reports Dave Fischer, University
of Wisconsin extension crops specialist in Dane County.
“Early in the season, it seemed like a fair number of stands just
weren’t performing,” says Fischer. “At first, nobody could quite
figure out what was going on. Following first crop, several small plots
were established to determine if a response would occur to sulfur based
on plant analysis reports. These results were amazing, and doubled the
alfalfa yield under a sulfur application. Then, between second and third
crops, a couple of growers applied some sulfur and the stands really
came on. They ended up getting more yield on third crop than they had
with first crop. That doesn’t happen very often.”
Fischer believes a variety of factors are likely contributing to the
problem. “In the southern and eastern parts of the state, we have
numbers showing we used to get about 20 lbs of sulfate/sulfur per year
from acid rain,” he says. “But now car engines are running cleaner
and we’re not burning as much coal. The amount of sulfur we’re
getting from precipitation is going down. We don’t know exactly how
much it has decreased, but it’s safe to say it is significant.”
Two major rainfall events (10-plus inches), one during the 2007 growing
season and another last year, could also be a factor. “Like nitrogen,
sulfur is leachable,” says Fischer. “It’s hard to say exactly what
effect those rains had, but it’s logical to assume they could have
washed away some sulfur with other nutrients.”
Higher alfalfa yields are also likely playing a role. “We have people
now pushing 7 tons of dry matter/acre. That’s creating a higher
demand for sulfur in fields. We’re at the point where people may need
to bring elemental sulfur back into their fertilization programs every
couple of years. We’ve gotten away from that.”
Signs of sulfur deficiency include short, yellow plants and/or plants
without many stems per crown. “If you see anything like that
developing in a stand, take a tissue test and send it off to the lab for
analysis,” Fischer recommends. “The cost will be about $20, but it
could save $70 in feed per cutting. That’s a pretty good return on
investment.”
For more information on dealing with sulfur deficiency, go to learningstore.uwex.edu/pdf/A2448.pdf
or learningstore.uwex.edu/pdf/A2525.pdf.
To contact Fischer, email David.fischer@ces.uwex.edu.
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 Use
our site to search for forage production tips! Plus, read what other
growers are doing to stay profitable.
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Officials from the Arkansas State Plant Board and the University of
Arkansas (UA) Cooperative Extension Service are reminding hay growers to
review fire-ant quarantine rules before shipping into drought-driven
markets.
“With Texas and other areas sustaining drought conditions, the market
for Arkansas hay is robust,” reads a news release issued by UA last
week. “Fire ants, a danger to humans, livestock and electrical
equipment, often hitchhike in agricultural materials such as hay and
infest new areas.”
Terry Walker, director of the plant board’s Plant Industry Division,
says if Arkansas hay is shipped to a non-quarantined area, the recipient
has to determine if it came from one of Arkansas’ quarantined
counties. “We’re trying to work with producers who are in
non-quarantined areas shipping into non-quarantined areas. We’ve
offered to send our inspectors out and they will write a permit
specifying that the hay originated in a non-quarantined county. That way
the receiving area doesn’t have to wonder.
“That’s a pretty handy deal for the shipper not to have to fight
that hassle, because sometimes the receiving state will say they don’t
want it and the shipper will have to load it up and take it back.
That’s a big expense.”
Currently, 33 of Arkansas’ 75 counties are under quarantine. Producers
in those areas may not ship agricultural products to non-quarantined
areas without meeting certain requirements outlined by USDA’s Animal
and Plant Health Inspection Service. To see a map of quarantined
counties in the state, go to www.aspb.arkansas.gov/images/IFA%20small.jpg.
The state plant board has established a “Protocol for Hay Movement in
Relation to Imported Fire Ant Quarantine Requirements” to help hay
growers prepare and ship their products according to those regulations.
Visit the board’s Web site at www.plantboard.org/ for more
details. Information from UA extension on controlling fire ants is
available at www.uaex.edu/Other_Areas/Publications/PDF/FSA-7036.pdf.
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Educational presentations, equipment demonstrations, a trade show
and hay quality contest will be featured at the 2009 Purdue Forage Day
on Thursday, Sept. 17.
Attendees who want to enter the hay quality contest should bring one
bale of hay. A certificate will be awarded by the Indiana Forage Council
and forage-related products will be provided by agribusinesses to the
winner of each division (grass, legume and mixed). Winners will be
announced within two weeks following the event. There is no fee for
contest samples.
"This year it's been a challenge to make dry hay throughout the season,
particularly in southern Indiana," says Purdue University extension
forage specialist Keith Johnson, who coordinates the annual field day.
"So one of the topics we'll focus on is making hay-crop silage from
round bales. Essentially this is harvesting the hay when it has a
moisture content of 50%, wrapping and allowing fermentation to occur."
This year’s Forage Day will be held at the Eric Miles Farm near
Cambridge City. Directions to the farm are available at www.agry.purdue.edu/forageday/location.html.
For more information, go to www.agry.purdue.edu/forageday/index.html
or contact Johnson at 765-494-4800 or johnsonk@purdue.edu.
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Sept. 2 -- Wisconsin Forage And Tillage Expo, D and D
Hawkins Farm, Chippewa Falls. Phone the Chippewa County UW-Extension
office at 715-726-7950.
Sept. 3-5 -- Stockman’s School For Profit, Rockin H Ranch,
Norwood, MO. Phone 417-259-2333 or email cdholmes@hughes.net.
Sept. 14-16 -- South Dakota Grazing School, Oacoma. Sponsored by
South Dakota Grass Coalition. Phone 605-688-6623 or 605-280-0127 or
visit www.sdgrass.org.
Sept. 17-19 -- National Hay Association Convention, Cadillac
Jack’s Gaming Resort, Deadwood, SD. Contact Don Kieffer at
800-707-0014 or visit www.nationalhay.org.
Sept. 22-23 -- Georgia Grazing School, University of Georgia
Livestock Instruction Arena, Athens. Go to www.georgiaforages.com/.
Sept. 29-Oct. 3 -- World Dairy Expo, Alliant Energy Center,
Madison, WI. Visit www.worlddairyexpo.com.
Oct. 23-24 -- Virginia Tech University’s 2009 Mid-Atlantic
Grass-Finished Livestock Conference, Holiday Inn Conference Center,
Staunton, VA. Contact Margaret Kenny at 434-292-5331 or makenny@vt.edu.
Oct. 29 -- Kentucky Grazing Conference, University of Kentucky
Research and Education Center, Princeton. Visit www.uky.edu/Ag/Forage.
Oct. 29 -- LSU AgCenter Calhoun Research Station Field Day,
Calhoun, LA. Innovative uses for forest and forage biomass will be
featured. Contact Michael Blazier at 318-927-2578 or mblazier@agcenter.lsu.edu.
For a complete list of upcoming events, click here.
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