55 Years And Counting From The Tractor Seat

By Bill Whitman 

 I absolutely love hay season. I love to mow hay, rake hay and bale hay. I even like tedding hay. The smell of fresh cut hay is great and the way a barn smells when you fill it with second hay is awesome.

Obviously, I like the physical work but just like producing every other crop on the farm, producing the very best quality hay that can be made from each field is a challenge that excites me. From the days of hiring out to Chuck and Chris Hann in Lockbourne, Ohio, to load and unload hay, I learned the importance of making hay to feed the animals at the Ohio State Veterinary School and then working several years with Dan Foor’s dairy where forage was a vital part of milk production, it has been ingrained in me that the better quality hay you feed, the better conditioned animal you’ll have.

Over the years I’ve listened to western ranchers disparage Eastern Cattle as being sub-standard to western cattle. For the most part, their reasoning is right. Out west, they put every effort into producing the best quality cattle they can. This begins with growing and harvesting the best quality forages possible. Here in eastern United States, too often making hay is the last thing on our list. It comes after everything else is done. The consequence is that the hay quality suffers from being made late and well after the peak nutritional value has passed. I have attended a number of forage days at Purdue over the years where Dr. Johnson showed how even low-quality grass hay has significant nutritional value if made at the right time in growth stage and put up the right way. The response from livestock, startling. So, if we want to change the perspective of Eastern Cattle, we need to meet the standards set by our western counterparts.

I would further argue that putting the priority on making and feeding higher quality feed would allow us to put livestock into the market that is superior to western cattle. If we fertilize our pastures, we can produce far more feed per acre than western states. If we fertilize our hay ground, we can produce a volume of nutritionally valuable hay per acre that can be reflected in the quality of our livestock. So why aren’t we doing these things?

For years, the size of our herds was relatively small – 20 cows and a bull. So, there wasn’t really a great deal of money to work with. Today, that’s changed. The price we’re getting seems high, but is the first time in history, the price is commensurate with the market, so we should be investing in the infrastructure of our farms and ranches along with improving our long-term feed sources.

In addition, the buyers we generally sell have to place a price low enough to absorb the costs to bring the cattle up to minimum standards acceptable to buyers in the western states. I suggest that if we feed our cattle appropriately, pre-condition the calves, break them to feed comparable rates of gain to western states and develop a network of buyers that will pay for meeting their standards. At the same time, now is a good time to replace our cows with the best genetics available and bulls that match up well with your herd. It takes a few years to benefit from these upgrades, but the expense is absorbable these days.

Finally, back to producing quality hay, equipment is key. A good mower conditioner, (I like the flail type conditioner as it beats up the forage , often making the hay less “stemmy”). A rake that effectively cleans the ground, and a baler that makes as tight of a bale possible. This puts more weight in the bale and helps shed the weather to help maintain the quality throughout the fall and winter. Even in the good times, make decisions based on short- and long-term NEEDS. Short term for cash flow, and long term for building your herds up with quality becoming your stock and trade. And especially with second cut, take time to smell the very best aroma that summer offers.

Horse Sense: There is no substitute for quality, no substitute for time, and never forget where your blessings for both come from.

IndianaAg@bluemarble.net