How Good is My Hay

[TexasBred]

Many on the board often question how to determine hay quality etc. There is only one way to know for certain and that is with a hay test. Below is a link to what I consider the best forage testing laboratory in the country. The price is very reasonable AND they will furnish you sample bags and postage paid plastic mailing envelopes for the sample. If you can get a hay probe so you can probe multiple bales and get a good representative sample and do not just pull and hand full of hay out of a bale and send it off. All they need is about 2 ounces (a handful). If you don't have a hay probe and don't want to buy one you can simple take a piece of 3/4 inch metal pipe and bevel the edges down on one end with a power grinder. You can shove this into a bale with ease, pull it out and use a dowel rod to push the sample out and into your sample bag. For whatever it's worth they can also do wet chemistry test on purchased feeds such as pellets, cubes and textured feed or of your own mix.

Hope this info. is beneficial.

http://dairyone.com/analytical-services ... ut-forage/

 

[Workinonit Farm]

Thanks for the info!

 

[jedstivers]

Dang TB, next thing you'll be saying to buy or sell hay based on weight too.

 

[TexasBred]

Dang TB, next thing you'll be saying to buy or sell hay based on weight too.

Yessir and I betcha you already do so you're one up on everybody jed. ;-)

 

[jedstivers]

Dang TB, next thing you'll be saying to buy or sell hay based on weight too.

Yessir and I betcha you already do so you're one up on everybody jed. ;-)

Well I sort of do. I test my good hay, not what I know is junk. I don't buy or sell hay anymore but I do have a set of 70' scales in place on the farm and I check bale weights for me. If I ever do get back to selling I'll base my prices on tons but alas I'll have to sell by the bale. No one is going to buy by the ton even though my pricing will be backed into it that way.