Hey are you selling your Hay?

Aug 31, 2016

Hey are you selling your hay?

So far forage quality has been very poor,  We are seeing about a 10 point drop in Relative Feed Value.  RFV is a good way to measure hay on how good or bad it is.  Here is the calculation: DDM = Digestible Dry Matter = 88.9 – (0.779 x % ADF) DMI = Dry Matter Intake (% of BW) = 120 / ( % NDF ) RFV = (DDM x DMI) / 1.29.  A RFV of 100 is equal to Alfalfa that has 41% ADF and 53% NDF.  When buying or selling hay, it is very important to get it tested.  As a seller, you can be losing money selling a superior product at a lower price.  As a buyer you can easily over pay for poor quality.  Prices are currently between 2 to 8 cents per pound looking at the MB Agriculture hay listing site (https://web31.gov.mb.ca/HayListClntExtrnl/Search).  Only a select few offer a feed analysis of their hay.  In a buyers market, having a feed analysis done could mean the difference between selling or sitting on your inventory.   For livestock producers, When developing your rations, RFV is not what you want to use, Protein and TDN are the main parameters you should focus on.  We offer a full range of forage testing options, please refer to our site at  https://www.ctl.mb.ca/servicesanalysis/forage-packages/ or https://www.ctl.mb.ca/servicesanalysis/forage-packages-by-nir-near-infrared-spectroscopy/