Abigail Sartin
Cow-calf operations are the heart of Louisiana’s livestock industry. Cattle in this sector spend much of their lives grazing perennial and annual pastures, so high-quality forage is important. Summer 2023 was one of the hottest and driest in recent memory. The drought took a major toll on crop production, and everyone from sugarcane farmers to cattle ranchers felt the effects. One of the biggest concerns was a lack of hay. Dry conditions made for great baling weather, but hay yields were down nearly 50% compared to a typical year. This had cattle producers scrambling for alternative forage sources like rice straw or cornstalks, and many were putting out hay as early as July.
Forage testing is strongly encouraged by the LSU AgCenter, and with sources in short supply due to drought, knowing forage quality is even more critical. A forage test is a cost-effective tool providing key information about how much energy and protein cattle will receive from consuming the tested forage. Research has pinpointed values for cow nutritional needs, allowing producers to match feed resources to these needs. With proper management, forage can satisfy the needs of cattle throughout various production stages of life. If there are times when needs exceed feed resources, then higher energy or protein feed sources like grain might be needed. When this happens, a forage test provides information about how much of the cow’s requirement can be satisfied by forage alone. From there, producers can work with LSU AgCenter Extension agents or specialists to determine the least amount of grain required per day to still meet requirements. This approach reduces overall feed costs and waste, which helps make Louisiana cattle producers more profitable.
To get a forage analysis, contact your local extension agent. Agents have the supplies needed to take your sample and send it to the LSU AgCenter forage lab in Baton Rouge. After the analyses, results will be emailed to the producer and the parish agent. A routine analysis costs $15 and will provide a plethora of information about the forage submitted. Results can be overwhelming, so it is helpful to narrow down what’s important. All cattle diets should be formulated on a dry matter basis. Make sure to read the values from the dried sample column when making feeding decisions. From there, producers should take note of the crude protein (CP) and total digestible nutrients (TDN).
Crude protein is the amount of nitrogen in the forage and is especially important for growing and lactating cattle. TDN is essentially the energy value of a forage and is mostly driven by the amount of indigestible fiber present in the sample. Another useful tool that is provided by the forage lab is dry matter intake (DMI) as a percentage of mature body weight.
It is not uncommon for some producers to make decisions about hay quality based on the NDF and ADF values found on their feed analysis. ADF and NDF are lab procedures to determine the fiber fraction of a forage. The cell wall is made up of components called cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. These three components together are the neutral detergent fiber (NDF) of a forage, while the least digestible components (hemicellulose and lignin) make up the acid detergent fiber (ADF). Essentially, NDF is a predictor of dry matter intake (DMI). ADF is a predictor of digestibility, so the lower a forage’s ADF, the more digestible it is.
Many agents do not discourage producers from looking at ADF and NDF values, but they do not recommend making feeding decisions based solely upon them. Cattle nutritional requirements can be calculated based on TDN and CP, which take fiber into account already. NDF and ADF values do have their place, especially for forage management. The maturity stage of a forage at harvest is heavily correlated to NDF, so if producers are looking to decrease their NDF value, harvesting earlier is a great management strategy to improve hay quality and digestibility.
Testing your hay and knowing how to interpret the analysis is the first step in creating a cost-effective feeding program. Forage testing allows you to know exactly what you are working with, and from there you can supplement strategically if needed. Proper forage management practices can help reduce indigestible fiber values and reduce supplementation and overall feed costs.
The LSU AgCenter continues to encourage testing forage resources and management strategies such as fertilization and more frequent harvests. The implementation of these recommendations helps reduce overall feed costs for producers, which is key to ensuring that Louisiana’s cattle industry continues to thrive amid rising production costs.
Abigail Sartin is an AgCenter agriculture and natural resources extension agent for Vermilion, St. Mary and Acadia parishes.
Portions of this article and the accompanying sidebar were previously published in Hay and Forage Grower Magazine.
This article appears in the summer 2024 issue of Louisiana Agriculture.
A Great Day for Louisiana Hay
To incentivize hay testing, the AgCenter hosts its annual forage quality contest in conjunction with the state fair in Shreveport. Raymond Fontenot and Bryan Simon, both of Vermilion Parish, focus on the craft of haymaking, and their management strategies earned them high honors in the most recent contest. Simon won the legume hay category and was the overall grand champion, while Fontenot won the warm-season perennial grass hay category.
Fontenot owns and operates Crescent Bar F LLC, a grass-fed cattle operation in Meaux. He focuses on intensive grazing management to produce grass-fed beef sold directly to consumers. He schedules the dynamics of his operation around the rebreeding and calving seasons while cows are turned out on ryegrass.
“My goal is to use hay as a supplement feedstuff to get through the winter because I usually have good ryegrass for grazing,” Fontenot said. “The reason I started making hay was because I couldn’t get access to the quality of hay I needed for grass-finishing cattle.”
Fontenot routinely tests his hay and uses the results to decide which cuttings he will feed to specific classes of cattle. He aims to harvest forage every 30 to 45 days, but with Louisiana’s subtropical conditions and an average rainfall of 60 inches a year, both Fontenot and Simon often need to adjust their harvest times around the weather.
Simon is a second-generation sugarcane farmer who began making perennial peanut hay 12 years ago. At the time, the state of Georgia was having a hard time getting producers to grow perennial peanuts, so some companies offered seed to farmers in southern Louisiana. Simon took them up on the offer. From there, his journey with perennial peanut hay has been a lot of trial and error. He originally planted it with the intent to sell high-quality hay to local racehorse operations, but now he has customers ranging from horse stables to sheep operations and even a deer farm in Texas. Simon’s perennial peanut hay business has mostly spread through word of mouth. It started with a close relationship with a Katahdin sheep breeder who bought his hay. He typically gets two cuttings a year, with the first at the end of May and a second in July. Perennial peanut hay is fragile, and like alfalfa, most of the nutrient content for cattle is in the leaves.
“You have to handle it very gently,” Simon explained. “You have to fluff it at an idle.”
Simon said he has learned a lot in the dozen years since he started making perennial peanut hay.
Abigail Sartin
Raymond Fontenot, left, and Bryan Simon won their categories at the AgCenter forage quality contest at the state fair in Shreveport. Fontenot and Simon, both of Vermilion Parish, focus on the craft of haymaking. Photo by Abigail Sartin
A hay field in Vermilion Parish. Provided photo.