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Oklahoma producers find themselves out of their "comfort zone" as they go into the winter of 1998-1999. Many have marginal or inadequate forage supplies. However, others may find themselves with forage of unknown origin (because they justifiably felt the need to purchase whatever hay they could find) and therefore of unknown quality. In some cases, producers have cut and baled hay in the latter weeks of October, because the September and October rains have allowed regrowth of some warm season pastures. Late October may not be the ideal time to harvest warm season pastures, but when other hay is scarce, that regrowth is hard to turn down. Some of this "late cutting" hay could be adequate in protein and energy content, while other fields may yield very low quality forage and need considerable supplementation to enhance the usefulness of the hay. Perhaps the most frightening "unknown" about hay this year is the potential for nitrate accumulation in some hay crops. Johnsongrass, millets, forage sorghums, sudan hybrids were heat and drought stressed across much of the midwest. Any of these plants when stressed can accumulate toxic levels of nitrate. Read more about this topic in OSU Fact Sheet F-2903 Nitrate Toxicity in Livestock available at any OSU County Extension Office. Forage analysis can be a useful tool to remove some of the mystery concerning the hay that producers will feed this winter. Testing the grass hays this year for protein and energy content will help the producer design winter supplementation programs most appropriate for the forage supply that is available. Any of the potential nitrate accumulating hays should be tested for nitrate concentration. There are several good methods of sampling hay for forage analysis. Most nutritionists would prefer to use a mechanical coring probe made specifically for this purpose. The coring probe is usually a stainless steel tube with a serrated, cutting edge. It is 1 inch in diameter and is designed to fit on a 1/2 inch drill or brace. Cordless drills make these tools quite mobile so that the hay bales to be tested do not have to be hauled to be near an electrical outlet. The hay samples are place in paper or plastic bags for transfer to a forage testing laboratory. Cores are taken from several bales at random to obtain a representative sample to be analyzed. Grab samples can also be obtained and tested. To receive the best information, grab several samples by hand from about 6 inches into the open side of the bale or the middle third of a small round bale. Place all of the sample in the bag. Do not discard weeds or stems, just because they look undesirable. They are still part of the hay that you are offering to the livestock. Be certain to label the forage samples accurately and immediately, in order for the laboratory analysis to be correctly assigned to the proper hay piles or bales. Obviously the more samples that are sent to the laboratory for analysis, the more information can be gained. Just as obvious is the fact that as the number of samples increase, the cost of forage testing increases. Samples can be taken to the OSU
County Extension office near you and then sent to the
OSU Soil, Water, and Forage Testing laboratory in Agricultural Hall
on the campus at Stillwater. The price list below gives some of
the options from which producers may choose to best fit their situation.
There are other commercial laboratories available in the Oklahoma City
area that also do an excellent job of forage analysis. Forage Analysis Price list from OSU Soil, Water, and Forage Testing Laboratory Basic Analysis
Basic
Plus Energy Basic Plus Energy
Nitrate Content
Producers that find moldy hay or have concerns about mycotoxins in forages should take hay samples to their local veterinarian. These samples then can be forwarded to the Oklahoma Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory in Stillwater for mycotoxin analysis and appropriate recommendations.
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