I remember preparing my first Thanksgiving dinner as a newlywed. It was incredibly stressful. While a supper of freshly baked bread, cold milk, a slice of cheese and a dill pickle was (and still is) a feast in my book, according to my husband the stuffing at Thanksgiving was key to his happiness, and no one made it better than his mother. Grrreeeaaattt … where was I supposed to go from there?

As I visit with hay producers and buyers, I hear comments about “collecting two samples from the same lot of hay, sending them to two labs and getting results that are not identical.” This is generally followed by something to the effect that “one of the labs must be wrong.”

Hay is an important part of beef cattle nutrition in most operations. Good-quality hay is high in energy and, depending upon plant composition and amount of fertilization, it can be high in protein. It is used to replace depleted nutrients in standing forages during winter months and periods of prolonged drought.

The backbone of the dairy feeding program continues to be centered on perennial forages, mostly alfalfa or alfalfa-grass mixes, and our favorite annual forage: corn silage. While it is unlikely that the reliance on these two crops will decrease greatly in the near future, the impact regularly occurring droughts in recent years have had on corn yields are causing producers to wonder about other crops that might be grown in place of or in addition to corn silage.

The highest milk-producing cow produced 72,000 pounds in 305 days. That is more than three times the national average. Some stockers have more than 4 pounds per day gain on forage. Such high animal performance requires re-designed forage.

Crop rotations may benefit from high-yielding forages that are harvested as silage or hay and marketed to livestock producers. Traditionally, producers have focused on a few common crops for forage and silage production, such as corn and alfalfa, and for good reason.