How much does it cost to get hay tested?
How much does it cost to get hay tested?
Testing your hay is the best insurance policy to ensure you are meeting your horse’s or herd’s daily nutritional requirements. For as little as $18 – it’s affordable and practical.
How can I test the quality of my hay?
The best technique for sampling baled hay is to use a mechanical coring probe. The serrated edge of the probe is placed on the side of a hay bale that is most resistant to puncture. This is usually the round side of a round hay bale or the small end of a square bale. A sample is obtained by drilling with a brace.
How do you test a hay sample?
How to take a proper hay sample?
- Select random bales throughout the lot you wish to sample.
- Obtain a sample from as far inside the bale as possible.A.
- Place sample from bale into a 5-gallon bucket.
- Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you have at least 10 samples from 10% of the bales in the lot you are testing.
What is the best hay to grow in Texas?
BERMUDA AS A HAY GRASS. Not only is Bermuda the leading grass of the South for pasture, but in many parts of the South and in the humid parts of Texas it is a most valuable perennial hay grass. It can with great profit be grown for hay along the damp, rich creek bottoms of all East Texas.
Can I make money growing hay?
He says it costs about $297 per acre to seed and prepare hay ground. “You are going to get more than three years out of that, but if we use three years, that’s about $100 per acre per year,” Brown says. “If you are getting $125 per ton for quality hay, you are going to see a profit of $51 per ton, or $204 per acre.
What is a good relative feed value for hay?
Table 1: Alfalfa guidelines
| Quality Designation | Relative Feed Value (RFV) | Acid Detergent Fiber (ADF) |
|---|---|---|
| Premium | 170-185 | 27-29 |
| Good | 150-170 | 29-32 |
| Fair | 130-150 | 32-35 |
| Utility | Under 130 | Over 35 |
What is a good protein level for hay?
Though this grass isn’t time sensitive, it reaches maturation during a season not favorable to farmers. Orchard grass hay yields a crude protein between 8 and 13 percent and has a calcium content of 0.26 to 0.27 percent.
What is NFC in hay analysis?
Non Fiber Carbohydrates (NFC) This is a calculated (as opposed to an analyzed or measured value) estimate of all carbohydrates not in neutral detergent fiber (NDF). NFC = 100 – crude protein% – NDF% – ash% – crude fat%.
How do you test the sugar content of hay?
The two most common methods for measuring the sugar content of hay and pasture are the ethanol soluble carbohydrate (ESC) and the water soluble carbohydrate (WSC) methods. ESC: captures monosaccharaides, disaccharides, oligosaccharides, and a small fraction of fructans.
How much does a bale of hay cost in Texas?
Small Bales: Coastal: Delivered: Good: 9.00-10.00 per bale. Small Bales: Beardless Wheat: Premium: 10.00-11.00 per bale. CRP: Delivered: 80.00-125.00. Far West Texas/Trans Pecos: Alfalfa: Small Squares: Delivered local or FOB: Premium to Supreme: 275.00-300.00, 9.00-10.00 per bale.
How much hay does a cow need in Texas?
The bottom line is that you will need 2 to 4 tons of round-bale hay per cow to keep her in the same shape all winter. Low-quality hay will require fewer bales, because cows just cannot eat as much.
How much money can you make off an acre of hay?
“You are going to get more than three years out of that, but if we use three years, that’s about $100 per acre per year,” Brown says. “If you are getting $125 per ton for quality hay, you are going to see a profit of $51 per ton, or $204 per acre.
How many bales of hay can one acre produce?
With an average bale weight of around 40 pounds (with our Abbriata small square baler or any of our mini round balers), that’s 100 bales to the acre for a first cutting. Our farm aside, we can offer some guidelines to consider when trying to predict the productivity of your hay fields.
What does RFQ stand for in hay?
Relative Forage Quality (RFQ) Relative feed value is calculated by estimating the digestibility of the forage dry matter, and how much the cow can eat based on its “filling” capacity. However, cows sometimes perform differently even when fed forages of identical RFV.
What type of hay has the highest protein?
alfalfa hay
Higher Protein Content On average, alfalfa hay has much higher levels of protein, ranging from 15% to 21% depending on when the alfalfa was cut. This is much higher than the protein levels of grass hay, which typically contains 10% or less protein.
How many bales of hay does a cow need a day?
A 1200-pound cow, ready for processing, will require 36 pounds of forage per day based on the formula used here. Thirty-six pounds of hay is close to one small square bale of hay per day, taking into consideration some waste.
What is considered premium hay?
Premium: Early maturity, pre-bloom, fine-stemmed, extra leafy—factors contributing to a high nutritive content. Hay is green and free of damage, mold, dust, or foreign material (< 5%). Also occurs from bud to first bloom in legumes.
What does Rfv mean in hay?
RELATIVE FEED VALUE
RELATIVE FEED VALUE MEASURES FORAGE QUALITY INTRODUCTION. The most widely accepted measure of the quality of alfalfa is Relative Feed Value (RFV). RFV is an index used to compare the quality of forages relative to the feed value of full bloom alfalfa.
What hay is highest in sugar?
Oat hay tends to be higher in nitrates and also high in sugar (NSC), so this hay is not an option for insulin resistant horses. Here’s a comparison chart so you can see the differences between alfalfa hay, timothy (grass) hay and oat hay.
