The ultimate test of forage quality is animal performance. Producing high quality forages is vital to improved animal
performance, whether your goal is more pounds of milk, a higher rate of gain, , or an improved conception rate.
Forages provide a major percentage of the nutrients for beef and dairy cattle, sheep and goats, horses and ruminant wildlife. If the quality isn’t right, you can’t
feed animals enough forage to achieve production goals.
Forage quality is defined as “the extent to which a forage, whether pasture, hay or silage, has the ability to produce
the desired animal response.”
While many factors affect forage quality, the stage of maturity at harvest is the single most important consideration.
It also is the one over which producers can make the most progress. Protein content, digestibility and acceptability to livestock drops as legumes and grasses move
from the vegetative, or leafy, stage to the reproductive, or seed, stage. For instance, grasses may contain more than 30 percent protein at the immature, leafy stage,
but drop to less than eight percent protein when they mature. Legumes are generally higher in protein and energy than grasses, but overmaturity hurts them as well.
In addition to forage quality, producers need to consider animals’ nutritional needs and match the quality to these
needs. In general l, high-quality forages are more palatable. Forages must be palatable for animals to consume enough to meet their daily needs.
Digestibility also improves with forage quality. Animals may digest 80 to 90 percent of immature, leafy grasses but
only 50 percent or less of mature material with lots of stems. High quality forages have significant amounts of protein, energy, vitamins and minerals, but are low in
undesirable contents such as fiber and lignin.
Our weather has caused some real problems with forages this spring. We hope to use the rest of the growing season to
make adequate high quality hay. Remember, stage of maturity is your single best tool in making sure your hay has the quality you’d like for your animals this winter.
