Quality Tested Hay Auctions Begin Dec 3rd 

        Quality tested hay auction season is here and area producers will again have the opportunity to buy or sell forage based on known nutrient value.  This winter, quality tested hay auctions will be offered on the first Friday of each month running December through April at Equity Livestock in Lomira.   The Fond du Lac and Dodge County Forage Councils will sponsor the auctions along with Equity Livestock.  For these tested sales to continue in the future, both buyers and sellers will need to support them to every extent possible.  As always, auctions will begin at 12 noon but loads must be checked-in no later than 10:30 a.m. to insure adequate time for testing.   

Hay price results from the Lomira auctions can be obtained by calling the FORAGEline.   

Call 1-800-441-4636

Then dial "1"

Enter the 4-digit message code 1-2-6-6 

Results are also available on the Fond du Lac County Extension Agronomy World Wide Web page at:  

www.uwex.edu/ces/crops/hayauc05.html

The Driving Forces Behind Milk/Ton and Milk/Acre for Determining Corn Silage Quality  

        We often throw around the terms Milk/Ton and Milk/Acre like a wet wash rag, but do we really know what they tell us and what factors are most important in determining their scope?  At the most basic level, Milk/Ton is purely a measure of feed quality with no regard to crop yield.  Milk/Acre is determined by multiplying crop yield by Milk/Ton.  Simple enough?  Yes, but what factors have the biggest impact in changing the values of “milk measures?” 

        Milk/Ton is driven by crop moisture, crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), NDF digestibility, starch %, and a few other minor factors like ash content.  Experience tells us that the odds-on pick to have the most dramatic impact on milk/ton is NDF content.  In fact, it does.  But then the water gets a bit murky.  Surprisingly, CP has very little impact on the milk/ton value of corn silage.  The next least important criteria is crop moisture, which impacts kernel “hardness.”  Next comes starch content, and finally the most important measurement (only behind NDF) is NDF digestibility. 

        As for Milk/Acre, it’s not even a contest.  Yield is overwhelmingly the most important driving factor.  Is it possible to select the best corn silage hybrid based on one number?  The answer is “no”, but clearly some numbers are more important than others.
 

Further Quantifying the “No-cut” Critical Fall Harvest Window for Alfalfa 

        It would be nice to think that a “no cut” fall harvest window exists for alfalfa, but judging from observations over the past five years it’s apparent that the window is cracking significantly.  Many producers are cutting hay straight through alfalfa’s sacred month of September and rolling right into October.  Significant winterkill in the spring as a result of this practice has been virtually non-existent. 

        Has the critical fall cutting period of September 1 to October 15 disappeared?  If so, why?  Well, it’s not really clear what the answer might be, but we can make some educated guesses and look at some new research that might help explain what we are seeing.  First, however, we must realize that there is more to measuring alfalfa success in the spring than simply an alfalfa field’s ability to green-up.  Although cutting in the fall may not kill a stand, it almost always will do two things.  First, it reduces the yield of first crop the following year.  Perhaps this is of little consequence if forage is needed for overwinter feeding.  Second, it will always set-up a field to have a higher likelihood of dandelion infestation.  Again, maybe not a big deal if you don’t mind looking at yellow flowers when the next May rolls around. 

           One theory of why we have experienced much less winterkill during the past ten years is simply that alfalfa genetics has improved the ability of the plant to handle environmental stresses.  This makes some sense given the increased importance that was placed on winterhardiness and persistence following the disastrous years of the early 1990’s.  Then again, maybe we’ve just been lucky from the standpoint of winter and early spring weather, but this becomes much less defendable as the years pile-up without significant kill from fall cutting date. 

        Some interesting research from Quebec, Canada has helped to further define the most “risky” time to cut alfalfa in the fall.  Researchers determined that alfalfa needs about 500 growing degree units (GDU – base 41) after the last cutting to regrow sufficiently for good winter survival and maximum yield the next year.  Further, 200 GDU’s or less after the final cut would not result in sufficient drawdown of root carbohydrates and proteins to put the plant at risk for winter injury. 

        Knowing these numbers now allows us to quantify the risk factor.  That is, cutting on September 10^th may only mean that you still have a 7 in 10 shot of getting the needed 500 GDU’s (not sure what the real percentage for Fond du Lac might be, but we’ll have it by next fall). 

        Fall cutting decisions may never be an exact science given the nature of the beast, but improvements in alfalfa genetics and the ability to assess risk will help give producers more options in making informed decisions of when and if to cut.