Muleshoe, Texas
September 16, 2005
The dairy industry is thriving in
West Texas and eastern New Mexico, so many crop producers in the
region are looking at alfalfa as an alternative or rotation
crop. But what are dairymen looking for in terms of alfalfa
quality?
Bryan Boehning, a Bailey County dairyman, provided some insight
at a recent Texas
Cooperative Extension regional alfalfa workshop.
"It's this in a nutshell – we want hay with a good green color,
12 percent to 15 percent moisture content and the highest
relative feed value we can get," Boehning said. "A relative feed
value of 150 is the bottom end of what I will take. I prefer hay
rated at 185 to 190. Anything rated from 190 to 230 is what we
consider premium hay."
Helping producers grow and deliver premium hay to a new market
is the goal of this and other regional workshops, said Curtis
Preston, Extension agent in Bailey County. "Our alfalfa sector
is turning from producing horse hay to high-quality dairy hay,
which requires a higher level of management," he said. "Knowing
your buyer and what they want in terms of feed value is a
crucial component of successful marketing."
Relative feed value, or RFV, is a measure of forage quality. The
benchmark for rating forages with this index is alfalfa at full
bloom, which has a relative feed value of 100. A forage with a
relative feed value of 120, for example, contains 20 percent
more energy than full-bloom alfalfa.
"We test everything on our place before it is fed," Boehning
said. "Our nutritionist uses two or three different labs to get
all our feed analyzed. We blend a variety of protein and
starches with our hay to make the total ration. That includes
corn, sorghum and wheat silage and some distillers grain from
the ethanol plant in Portales, N.M.
"We also blend hays because what we buy falls in a range of feed
values. For that reason, we will take all the 180 to 200 RFV hay
we can find."
Two guides, "Understanding Forage Quality Analysis" and "RFVand
RFQ - What's the Difference?" are available on the Internet at:
http://animalscience.tamu.edu/ansc/index.htm in the
Publications: Dairy Cattle section.
"New and existing dairies on the
High Plains are the main market for alfalfa producers here,"
said Calvin Trostle, Texas Cooperative Extension agronomist
based at Lubbock.
Trostle has put together a packet of alfalfa information for
West Texas and High Plains producers that includes university
alfalfa variety trials, and guides to common production problems
and considerations. It is available on the Internet at:
http://lubbock.tamu.edu/othercrops. Trostle can be reached
at (806) 746-6101 or
ctrostle@tamu.edu.
Boehning's milk cows produce an
average of 72 pounds of milk per day from three milkings, so
plenty of hay is kept on hand to help make the blended ration
fed in the milking parlor.
"We keep a stockpile of hay on hand at all times," he said. "We
try to buy and stockpile enough hay by January to last us
through May. Our equipment is set up to handle large square
bales. We prefer 4-foot by 8-foot square bales."
Packaging and marketing alfalfa hay in round bales is not
recommended.
Round bales can often net a forage producer as much as a $15 per
ton discount because they are harder to handle, Boehning said.
Harvest management has a greater affect on alfalfa quality than
the variety a forage producer chooses to grow, said Leonard
Lauriault, a New Mexico State University forage agronomist based
at Tucumcari/Clovis.
"Alfalfa quality is not highly variable, but there are literally
hundreds of alfalfa varieties available to choose from,"
Lauriault said.
"To maximize quality, we recommend that you cut alfalfa in the
pre-bloom stage and allow a six- to seven-week rest between the
last two cuttings.
"Varieties with a fall dormancy rating between four and eight
are a good choice for the Southern High Plains. You can gauge
variety performance by examining the results of university
alfalfa trials...this is best comparison data available. Look
for varieties that are broadly adapted in trial locations near
your farm."
Resistance to insects, diseases and nematodes should also be
considered, he said.
"Phytophthora root rot, Anthracnose crown rot, bacterial wilt
and fusarium wilt are our top disease concerns," Lauriault said.
"Stem nematodes and southern root-rot nematodes also rate right
up there. With insects, we are concerned with a variety's
ability to withstand alfalfa weevils and aphids.
"Even so, alfalfa has proven to be a good long-term rotational
crop with cotton and other crops on the High Plains."
According to the Texas
Agricultural Statistics Service, Texas producers harvested
more than 855,000 tons of alfalfa from 150,000 acres in 2004,
with an average yield of 5.7 tons per acre. These producers
received an average price of $132 per ton, and generated more
than $112 million in farm-gate receipts statewide. |