Feed is commonly the largest expense on a livestock farm, and the quality of the feed can make or break the herd.
At the first Maine Forage Conference in November, Nicholas Richardson, the sales manager at Kent Nutrition Group’s Blue Seal Retail Stores Division, explained the importance of testing your forage. In simple terms, Richardson stated that when it comes to feed, “garbage in, garbage out.”
Richardson noted that Kent Nutrition Group’s Blue Seal screens “everything that comes in.” They are aware that a high-quality and nutrient-balanced diet is needed for animals to grow, reproduce and thrive on the farm.
Forages are especially important for ruminant animals, providing abundant fiber to maintain health. Just visually analyzing forage can be misleading, so it’s important to test samples to determine the nutrient components.
A wide variety of forage can be tested, including grasses, hays, silage and grain. Although collecting samples of the forage is important, it can be a dangerous task depending on the farm’s storage system. While cautiously collecting the samples, Richardson urges farmers to collect “an amalgamation of the crop.” Samples should be collected from throughout the feed to get a representative sample of the crop as a whole. All the samples should be mixed together and put in a bag for testing.
Many factors can influence the quality of forage, most of which can be controlled with management techniques. Fertilizing the field before the first crop grows too tall is crucial. If fertilizer is added after the plants’ growth phase, the plants cannot use the fertilizer to maximize their growth.
Richardson added that it doesn’t matter how much money you spend on fertilizer and storage “if you can’t control the temperature.” If temperatures are too high, fiber levels will increase, decreasing the digestibility.
Nicholas Richardson is the sales manager at Kent Nutrition Group’s Blue Seal Retail Stores Division. Photo by Kelsi Devolve
It’s also no secret that “you can’t grow grass without rain.” Lack of moisture will lead to poor grass growth, but too much moisture when harvesting can throw off the dry matter results. The timing of harvest is important, because as the forage matures, the palatability decreases.
Due to palatability alone, Richardson would rather feed a younger forage with higher moisture than a mature forage with proper moisture.
Other factors including processing techniques and storage conditions can also influence forage quality.
For lab testing, samples should be placed in a bag that is labeled with the type of forage and the harvest date. When it comes to silage, it’s important for farmers to specify the variety and mix of silage submitted for testing. Mixed grass silage is tested differently than straight grass silage, so it must be mentioned if there’s clover or legume mixed in.
There are multiple types of corn silage, so the sample must be labeled with the variety of corn silage submitted. You can also indicate on the sample if you would prefer a wet chem test or an NIR test.
Lab results can show a range of contents in the forage: moisture, dry matter, crude protein, neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber, total digestible nutrients (TDN), minerals, relative feed value, relative feed quality and ash.
NDF measures the indigestible fiber in the feed, so the higher the NDF, the less the animal will consume. TDN is an estimate of the energy content in the forage, which is important to know to maintain an animal’s weight.
Both the relative feed value and the relative feed quality are determined by comparing your sample to other samples at the lab. This “ranks your feed amongst all of your peers” to see how your feed compares to others nearby. The pH of the forage should also be measured, as farmers need to be able to balance the animals’ total feed to prevent acidosis or alkalosis.
“It’s essential to make sure the grain you feed is balanced with the forage you feed,” added Richardson.
Forage testing is very beneficial. Although it may take extra time and money to submit these samples, analyze the results and adjust your feed, having healthier and more productive animals is worth it.
by Kelsi Devolve
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