March 11, 2010 - When properly stored, hay can last a long time.
As one story goes, tests run on 2,000-year old hay found inside a pyramid revealed that the hay still had good nutritive value. The hay was put in the pyramid for its occupant's animals on his way to the afterlife, and they could have still fed on it two millennia later.
Texas AgriLife Extension Forage Specialist Larry Redmon tells that story to illustrate how hay, if properly protected, can last a long time. With hay costing $70 per round bale, protecting the hay from loss and waste can save cattle producers a considerable amount of money.
Though Redmon won't vouch for the certainty of the hay in the pyramid, he said that hay will last indefinitely if it's properly cared for.
"I knew one fellow who had put some hay in the barn and left it there for a long time," Redmon said. "He decided he was going to clean out the barn and just burn that old hay because he figured it wasn't any good.
"Somebody persuaded him to have it tested and it still had 9 percent crude protein. They asked him how long it had been in there, and he said he'd put in there when he got married, and that had been 33 years ago."
A lot of producers lose a good part of their investment in hay by not protecting it, Redmon said. He added the best way to protect it is with a hay barn.
"A good hay barn is the only building on the place that pays for itself," he said. "The amount of hay you save by storing it in that hay barn will pay for the barn in just a few years."
Redmon cited studies showing that hay stored in a barn suffered losses of 3.5 percent compared to a whopping 49.2 percent for hay stored on the ground and he noted that producers who lose 50 percent of their hay are also doubling their feeding costs.
"If you lose four inches around the rim of the bale, that's 21 percent of the bale," he said. "If you lose six inches, that's a third of the bale. You have to protect it the best you can."
Though some producers prefer to unroll their hay on the ground for the cows to eat more easily and equally, Redmon doesn't recommend that practice. The hay that's on the ground becomes worthless straw after the cows have trampled, defecated and urinated on it, he said. Hay rings, bunks or mangers are all better choices that feeding off the ground.
For the round bales that are stored in the field rather than a barn, Redmon suggests arranging the hay in rows with the flat ends together with two or three feet between the rows. If possible, the hay should be arranged so that they run north to south in order to maximize exposure to the sun and help it dry faster when there is precipitation. Ideally, the hay will be lined up and down a slight slope for better drainage. Hay should never be lined up under trees, he added.
"One of the most critical times for hay is after it has been cut but before it has been baled," Redmon said. "Hay that gets rained on at this stage loses some of its nutritive value."
Rather than cutting hay that has a good chance of getting rained on, Redmon suggests leaving the forage standing and harvesting it when the curing conditions have improved.
Producers who buy hay should have a forage analysis test done before they buy it, he said.
"If you are feeding hay that is less than five percent crude protein, that's not good for the cow's BCS (Body Condition Scoring,)" Redmon said. "You also need to know what the nitrate levels in the hay are before you buy it."
Redmon recommends using a hay probe to collect the sample because it gets a more representative sample from inside the bale. "Grabbing a sample with your hands and having it tested is not enough," he said.
