There have been some notable trends in fall and winter feed test results to date.

Environmental factors during the growing season such as temperature, available moisture, and soil nutrients all contribute to forage quality. When conditions are warm and water is available, plants grow quickly, accumulating fibre and advancing in stage of maturing.

If water becomes limited, the rapid rate of growth is slowed significantly, and the plant moves resources from more mature areas to less mature areas. Often this results in leaves dropping off the lower stem, leaving lower quality forage to be harvested.

Dwayne Summach, a livestock feed extension specialist with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture in Outlook, says him and other livestock and feed specialists observed lower levels of protein than they expected in many forage samples, “reinforcing that testing is the only way to know what your forage contains.”

Summach say alfalfa hay expecting to have between 16 and 18 per cent crude protein are testing below that at 14 per cent. Grass hay by comparison are expected to have 10 to 12 per cent crude protein are testing just six to eight per cent with some even lower at four per cent. He says other samples are falling within the expected range “but there is no way to know without testing.”

For more information regarding collecting and submitting feed samples for testing, contact your local livestock and feed extension specialist or call the Agriculture Knowledge Centre at 1-866-457-2377.

(CJWW)