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52 THE RURAL VOICE
Advice
Making high quality
forages for dairy
producers,
By H. Harricharan
With the early arrival of spring,
dairy producers will be looking
forward to storing high quality
forages for the winter. Every dairy
producer is aware of the economic
importance of high quality forages in
their production systems. The real
challenge is to harvest and store good
quality alfalfa forage.
Harvest of the first cut is critical
in making good quality hay or silage.
It is a known fact that forage quality
deteriorates rapidly once cutting is
delayed beyond the optimum harvest
time.
Studies conducted on alfalfa
forages revealed that three main
components in forages, crude protein
(CP), acid detergent fibre (ADF) and
neutral detergent fibre (NDF), are
affected by delayed harvesting.
Producers know that the ideal high
quality forage has 20 per cent crude
protein, 30 per cent acid detergent
fibre and 40 per cent neutral
detergent fibre. These components
change when harvesting is delayed
by one day. Crude protein content
declines by 0.5 per cent, ADF
increases by 0.7 per cent and NDF
increases by 0.9 per cent for each day
past the peak harvest time. In fact, it
was estimated that alfalfa harvested
five or six days late can cause a loss
in milk production of 0.45 kg per day
unless the forage is adequately
supplemented to compensate for the
decrease in dry matter intake.
Growing -degree days is one
measure which can be used to
determine the ideal harvest date, but
many producers do not collect and
collate weather data on their farms
and hence they are unable to say
when the ideal 350°C (650°F)
growing -degree days have been
accumulated. However, growing
degree days may be available at your
local OMAFRA office.
Ideally, alfalfa should be
harvested at the early bud stage at a
time when the physical development
of the plant is used as a gauge of