Barley Hay

[I luv herfrds]

Does anybody feed this type of hay?
What can you tell me about it?
Talking about switching from oat hay to the barley.

 

[dun]

All I know about barley hay is that it has to be put up right or you can run into problems with the barley beards irritating the cows mouths. Eyes can also be porblem if they bury their heads in the stuff and the beards are too mature.

 

[Bez+]

Does anybody feed this type of hay?
What can you tell me about it?
Talking about switching from oat hay to the barley.

Not so sure there is much advantage to this, but you need to remember that 2 row barley is better than 6 row barley. The cows will eat both but they prefer 2 row - less irritatrion.

Why are you switching?

Bez+

 

[I luv herfrds]

Bez we have been running into problems with our oat hay when baling it we have been losing alot of the grain. Like this fall we were trying to harvest and hay at the same time.
Since we already raise malt barley it would be no problem to just cut some and bale it up.
Husband has just told me that the hay barley has no beards on them. We would grow that.

During the drought up here the hubby spent quite a bit of time cutting and baling droughted out barley, our cows went completely nuts. They liked to better then the winter wheat.

 

[dun]

Bez we have been running into problems with our oat hay when baling it we have been losing alot of the grain. Like this fall we were trying to harvest and hay at the same time.

Harvesting seed and cuttin hay are 2 vastly different rerquirements. For hay it has to be cut in the dough stage.

 

[grannysoo]

Why would anyone want to make barley into hay when it could be used for beer instead??????? :banana:

 

[I luv herfrds]

We were cutting winter wheat and trying to get the hay baled. Because of nitrates we like to let the oats ripen longer.

sorry granny sometimes it doesn't go to malt and it is feed instead.

 

[rockridgecattle]

Here in Manitoba we call it green feed. We grow it and cut it while there is still green in it. I think the dough stage. Cows love it. Oat green feed, barley green feed. It's great when you know you can not get the crop off for grain or if the weather was so wet in the spring it could not be seeded on time. So you put it in late with the intentions of cutting it for green feed.
Makes good silage as well.

 

[grannysoo]

Sigh..... what a waste. :mrgreen:

 

[1982vett]

sorry granny sometimes it doesn't go to malt and it is feed instead.

Sigh..... what a waste. :mrgreen:

Kind of like making hooch and pouring it into a car engine.

 

[grannysoo]

sorry granny sometimes it doesn't go to malt and it is feed instead.

Sigh..... what a waste. :mrgreen:

Kind of like making hooch and pouring it into a car engine.

Just another reason why corn based fuel should be a crime. :nod:

 

[Rangenerd]

We feed alot of grain hay. Beardless barley makes great hay. I would be a little afraid of bearded barley. Like someone else said, the beards cause some problems. When we put grain hay up, we try to cut it before the kernal starts to devolop. As soon as the kernal starts to form, the sugars are pulled out of the stem. All you are left with is straw.

 

[[email protected]]

Yes! Our Texas Longhorns love it. It's like cattle candy & loaded with protein to help them through the winter. We rotate with alfalfa grass & they look really healthy. Good source of information is on this web site by Ohio State; beef.osu.edu/library/barley.html. The report deals mainly with the barley heads & you'll read that supplementing with roughage is suggested. Baled barley provides roughage & nutrients to help keep cattle healthy (& happy). Check it out. One caution, watch for bloating. To help prevent this we set out a bloate block & the cattle love it. TR