224 -Foraging Around, Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, April 21,2001 Early Harvest Is Essential In Making Dairy-Quality Grass Hay Consider harvesting grasses alfalfa to obtain high quality forage which the earlier maturing variety before you would normall y harvest that 18 sultable for dairy animals, grew. ( Marvin Hall Penn State Forage Specialist The use of perennial grasses for high-quality dairy feed throughout much of Pennsylvania is common. Unfortunately, the quality of the harvested forage is less than dairy quality. The key factor in harvesting dairy-quality forage is harvest man agement. Recent research conducted by Dr. Jerry Cherney at Cornell University showed that plant development varies with grass species, but forage quality decline was consist ent across all spe cies. In other words, the forage species is not as important as timely harvest in ob taining high-quality forage. Reed canarygrass, bromegrass, tall fescue, and timothy were harvested at various stages of de velopment and tested for quality. According to Cher ney, the research showed that fiber digestion and other quality parameters decline with in creased maturity. The magnitude and rate of quality decline with matu rity are much more important than quality differences between individual species. Cherney also suggested that producers should consider harvesting their pure grass stands in the spring for dairy feed before they harvest alfalfa in order to produce acceptable grass quality. In other research presented at the recent American So ciety of Agronomy meetings, results in dicate that spring harvest of later ma turing varieties of cool-season grass species are lower in quality than early maturing varieties. When an early and late maturing vari ety of orchardgrass were harvested at the same stage of maturity, the early maturing variety had greater quality than the late matur ing variety. The research sug gested that the lower quality was the result of higher tem peratures during the However, the difference in quality between late and earlier maturing grasses was minor compared to the drop in quality associated with de laying the first harvest of either va riety. In summary, the use of cool season grasses for dairy-quality feed requires harvesting the grasses ear lier than normal. Delay in grass har vest and not grass species is the major factor in producing low quality grass hay or silage. %■ ■vf ' - GLEANER® R 72 The R 72 rotary combine offers a big 330-bushel standard bin capacity, a powerful 330 hp Cummins engine and the latest in GLEANER* engineering. A new, high efficiency radiator gives the R 72 tremendous cooling capacity in hot weather and stays cleaner longer. Only the GLEANER rotary combine system doesn’t make your crop change directions before threshing. And you can expect even more. • SMARTRAC* LATERAL TILT SYSTEM • TWO-STAGE CLEANING SYSTEM • ComforTECH™ CAB WITH TATTLETALE MONITORING • INTEGRAL CHAFF SPREADER • NATURAL FLOW PROCESSING • EXCLUSIVE DISTRIBUTION AUGER SYSTEM Come in for a closer look at the R 72, along with details on the exclusive GLEANER warranty. It covers your Gleaner combine from header to spreader for 2 years, with unlimited hours and no deductible. When you start with advantages like this, you'll come out way ahead. nELDSTA^EADY C.J. WONSIDLER BROS. Quakertown, PA New Tripoli, PA Oley, PA 215-536-7523 610-767-7611 610-987-6257 : .Vn * -yt-* - > "v * i •r> x * £■ > START WITH GLEANER®. FINISH WITH MORE FROM THE FIELD. HERNLEY’S FARM EQUIPMENT, INC. Elizabethtown, PA 717-367-8867 • 1 -800-564-251 1 Lancaster Farming Classified Ads Now searchable on the Internet, ✓ Check Out Our Web Site www.lancasterfarming.com B. EQUIPMENT, INC. Waynesboro, PA 717-762-3193 Engineered For Better Returns f
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