From staff reports Dana Zook, Oklahoma State University Extension livestock specialist, spoke Aug. 8 about the importance of providing quality forage for beef cattle.
At the Statewide Women in Agriculture & Small Business Conference at the Hilton Garden Inn in Edmond, Zook said, “Because cows are grazers, they rely on forage for the basis of their nutrition, so it is important to know if the forage you are providing is high quality or low quality.”
Zook explained that if forage is high quality, cows may not need as much of it, or the producer could save money by combining it with a lower quality forage. Alternatively, low quality forage may require additional supplements to avoid negative to production efficiency such as weight gain, maintaining conditions for calving, breed back proficiency, and calving efficiency.
She recommends a hay test to check producers’ hay quality. Once a test determines the protein level of the hay, a producer can determine what supplements if any are needed.
“The basic nutritional needs of cattle aren’t always an easy thing to figure out,” she said. “It depends on things like which stage of production they are in, their age, and purpose. Things like that all play a role in understanding what their nutritional needs specifically are from one animal to the next.”
Zook added that forage quality changes year to year.
“You might say that you have produced 8% Bermuda grass hay for 20 years, but it probably varies a little bit,” she said. “Of course, weather impacts forage quality, but so does fertility, depending on if you have native grass or an improved grass such as Bermuda. Bermuda and other improved grasses could use some fertilizer to maintain their quality.”
She mentioned a fine line between harvesting for quality and harvesting for quantity. “We want to find the balance between waiting until the end of the season or grazing or baling too early,” she explained. “Usually in hay meadows, we say by July 1. In Bermuda grass production, it is a little different. You will get multiple cuttings from multiple fertilizer applications.”