Page 18—Foraging Around, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 12, 2000
Need Forage? Check
Out Hay Net
In response to the drought and
shortage of forages for Pennsylvania
farmers, Penn State has started a
world wide web site to help locate
forages. Penn State Hay Net pro
vides people wishing to sell or buy
hay a free list of potential sellers
and buyers. This WWW site can be
accessed through your county exten
sion office or directly via www.cas.
psu.edu/docs/cashome/drought.
Fall Harvesting Alfalfa
After A Drought
Dry conditions this summer
caused a shortage of forage through
out Pennsylvania and the eastern
part of the US. Consequently, many
producers who normally wouldn’t
consider a fall alfalfa harvest are
rethinking the issue. Here are the
basic things to consider when decid
ing to take a fall harvest or not.
Alfalfa harvest schedules which
do not allow the alfalfa plant to
flower once during the season, pre
disposes the plant to winter injury.
However, in a drought year, alfalfa
stores abnormal amounts of sugars
in its crown and root. This generally
improves its chances of surviving a
fall harvest.
Older alfalfa stands are more
likely to winter kill or suffer winter
injury following a fall harvest than
younger alfalfa stands.
Alfalfa varieties with moderate
resistance to several diseases and
sufficient winterhardiness have
greater tolerance to stress from fall
harvesting than less disease resis
tant or winterhardy varieties.
Adequate soil pH and fertility
minimizes the risk of fall harvesting
by allowing alfalfa plants to develop
properly and be healthier.
Alfalfa on well-drained soils is
less likely to suffer winter injury
than alfalfa on poorly-drained soils.
Leaving six to eight inches of
stubble when taking a fall harvest
will reduce the risk of winter injury.
Dr. Marvin 11. Hall,
Penn State
Preserving High Moisture Hay:
Is it Economical?
The following conclusions about
the economics of using preservatives
to store high-moisture hay were
recently presented at the American
Society of Agricultural Engineers.
1. Hay treatments with normal
effectiveness (similar to propionic
acid) must be applied at a total cost
of less than $7.26 per ton DM in
order to provide economic return
with limited use. When treating
most or all hay, the cost must be less
than $3.63 per ton DM. If this treat
ment is used only when it prevents
rain damage to the crop (considering
perfect knowledge of future weath
er), the cost can be as high as $21.79
per ton DM with a net economic
gain.
2. Hay treatments with excellent
effectiveness (losses in treated high
moisture hay are similar to dry hay
storage losses) have a breakeven
cost of $8.17 per ton DM when used
on most hay and up to $13.62 per
ton DM for limited use to reduce the
❖ Grazing Bits ❖
probability of rain damage.
3. Hay treatments with ideal
effectiveness (eliminates all storage
loss) provide breakeven costs of $ll
to $l6 per ton DM when applied to
all hay. When the treatment is used
on less of the hay, the cost can be as
high as $2l per ton DM and still
result in a net economic gain.
4. The breakeven costs of a
preservative of normal effectiveness
cannot be greatly improved through
realistic changes in management.
C.A. Rotz, D.R. Buckmaster and
L.R. Borton
USDA-ARS and Penn State
Fenceless Grazing
Research being conducted at
Oregon State University involves
the use of radio transmitters and
receivers to control livestock move
ment and distribution. The concept
of the transmitters and receivers is
similar to a shock collar used for
training dogs. The cattle wear a
radio receiver ear tag that is the size
of a small transistor radio. When an
animal approaches an area it is not
supposed to be in it receives an
audio signal. The animals soon learn
how to stay within the invisible
boundaries and avoid receiving the
audio signal.
To date, research indicates that
this technology has substantial
potential in discouraging livestock
use of riparian areas. The electronic
ear tags have been shown to effec
tively change grazing patterns.
Research suggests that this tech
nique does not adversely stress ani
mals.
The future Use of this technology
is encouraging. Fenceless livestock
control has significant advantages
to exclusion fencing particularly
related to other uses of public lands
(i.e., recreation and wildlife, esthet
ics, etc.). The advent of global posi
tioning technology and its potential
use in technology such as electronic
diversion may open up even greater
potential in the near future.
Dr. Tim DelCurto
Oregon State
Grazing Horses On Alfalfa
Sixteen yearling horses were
grazed on alfalfa under two different
grazing treatments. Eight horses
were continually grazed on 5.2 acres
and eight were grazed on a rotation
al system consisting of six paddocks
of .9 acres each.
The horses were allowed 24-hour
access to alfalfa throughout the
trial, and they received no addition
al protein or energy supplementa
tion. The continually grazed treat
ment lasted 25 days before the graz
ing pressure removed available for
age. Those horses on the rotation
treatment grazed a total of 37 days.
Forage yields revealed that the
horses on rotation had access to
more forage per acre due to yield
variations in the field and to the sys
tems design of restricting grazing to
smaller sections of the grazing area.
Visual observation revealed a high
er incidence of spot grazing in the
continually grazed treatment.
Animal gains at 25 days of graz
ing averaged .5 pounds per day for
the continually grazed horses and
1.3 pounds per day for the rotation
ally grazed horses. No digestive dis
orders were detected in any of the
horses. Results suggest that if man
aged correctly, moderate growth rate
may be reached in yearling horses
grazing alfalfa without additional
supplementation. From visual obser
vation, it is suggested that a con
trolled grazing system may be the
most efficient method for forage uti
lization under the conditions of this
trial.
D.W. Freeman and others at Noble
Foundation
Drought Doesn’t Hurt PFGC
Hay Show
The drought of 1999 certainly
reduced the amount of hay that was
made in Pennsylvania, but you
wouldn’t have known it by looking
at the number and quality of sam
ples entered in the PFGC Hay Show
at Ag Progress Days. The 137 sam
ples in this year’s show was seven
more than entered last year. Many
people who entered hay in this
year’s show commented that they
didn’t have much hay but what they
had was very good quality. They
attributed the high quality to ideal
weather conditions for hay curing.
People’s perception that the qual
ity of hay was very good was con
firmed by the NIRS quality analyses
of the samples. The hay quality was
the best it has been in ten years.
Averaged across all samples crude
protein = 18.7 percent; acid deter
gent fiber (ADF) = 31 percent; neu
tral detergent fiber (NDF) = 50 per
cent; and relative feed value (calcu
lated from ADF and NDF) = 125.
The champion in the “Field
Cured” division was Brian Fulmer
from Pen Argyl in Northampton
county with an entry of later cutting
alfalfa. The champion in the heat
dried division was R.M. Hein Hay &
Straw Farms from Northampton in
Northampton county with an entry
of pure alfalfa. Mark Pifer from
Reynoldsville in Jefferson county
was the champion in the “Preser
vatives Added” division with a later
cutting of pure alfalfa.
The PFGC Needs Your Help!
Do you have an interest in help
ing develop some of the activities of
PFGC? Do you have some good ideas
you’d like to share with others about
the future direction of PFGC? Would
you like to assist in evaluating
farms for selection of the Outstand
ing Pasture Producer Award? If you
answered “yes” to any of the above
questions, then the PFGC needs
your help!
The standing committees of the
PFGC (Awards, Publications, Picnic,
Finance and Budget, Research &
Education, Membership, Fall
Conference, Constitution and By-
Laws, and Legislative) need people
who have ideas. These committees
are made up of and chaired by vol
unteer members of the PFGC such
as yourself. If you would like to be in
on the planning of PFGC activities
and direction, then give one of the
committees a try!
If you’re interested in serving on
a committee, just call Ed Ritz at
(717) 734-3745 or Marvin Hall at
(814) 863-1019 to discuss where you
can help.