Otha
Well-known member
Got my Results back from the 3 cuttings of coastal Bermuda. I used one of those probes that cuts a little core into the bale. The reason for 4 samples is I sampled the first cutting twice to see what would happen. I pulled samples on every 3 or 4 bales out of 120 and put it all in a bucket, mixed it up and poured it into two bags. The only reason I can figure the 21-1 and 21-11 samples are 2.6 protein difference is maybe when I stirred it in the bucket some leaf and stem separated causing the difference. I called the lab and the guy I talked to said they are usually within a few tenths on running the same sample. The 15.4% third cutting seems a little high for coastal but it was cut a little early due to the army worms so maybe that's an accurate number.
So I entered all 3 cuttings into OSU's ration cowculater and started playing around with feeding dry cows in their second trimester and some 6 weight calves. It doesn't seem to matter which hay they get the cowculator shows them gaining weight. Even with limit feeding the cows at 1.5% or 2% of body weight they show to be gaining weight. I will have some standing dormant Coastal for them to get full on that I am not even putting in the cowculator. Feeding the lessor quality first cutting to 600 pound calves at 3% intake it shows gaining a pound per day with the only limitation being minerals(I will provide free choice mineral). Am I missing something here or is the hay alone good enough to keep the calves growing until they go out on wheat in late feb or early march?
Now back to my post about the value of fed hay as fertilizer the other day. Using the info given in that thread it seems there's around $7 worth of nitrogen in the 15% hay. I used the mineral contents on the bottom of the report and a 1,000 pound bale(I think they will go 1,100, will weigh some soon) and came up with around $15-20 worth of nitrogen phosphorus and potassium based on fert price the last time I checked. I don't know the value of the other micro nutrients but I would assume they account for the difference in the prices listed on the other thread(someone said $28 per bale). Now I haven't and probably won't test the manure but I've read in several places that 60-80% of fed nutrients pass through to the manure so $17.5x70% leaves us with $12.25 worth of nutrients that I can easily calculate. I know that $12 won't affect cash flow any time soon but it is nice to know a guest-a-ment of what the value is we are putting back into the soil.
Now let's hear what everyone thinks about all of this.
So I entered all 3 cuttings into OSU's ration cowculater and started playing around with feeding dry cows in their second trimester and some 6 weight calves. It doesn't seem to matter which hay they get the cowculator shows them gaining weight. Even with limit feeding the cows at 1.5% or 2% of body weight they show to be gaining weight. I will have some standing dormant Coastal for them to get full on that I am not even putting in the cowculator. Feeding the lessor quality first cutting to 600 pound calves at 3% intake it shows gaining a pound per day with the only limitation being minerals(I will provide free choice mineral). Am I missing something here or is the hay alone good enough to keep the calves growing until they go out on wheat in late feb or early march?
Now back to my post about the value of fed hay as fertilizer the other day. Using the info given in that thread it seems there's around $7 worth of nitrogen in the 15% hay. I used the mineral contents on the bottom of the report and a 1,000 pound bale(I think they will go 1,100, will weigh some soon) and came up with around $15-20 worth of nitrogen phosphorus and potassium based on fert price the last time I checked. I don't know the value of the other micro nutrients but I would assume they account for the difference in the prices listed on the other thread(someone said $28 per bale). Now I haven't and probably won't test the manure but I've read in several places that 60-80% of fed nutrients pass through to the manure so $17.5x70% leaves us with $12.25 worth of nutrients that I can easily calculate. I know that $12 won't affect cash flow any time soon but it is nice to know a guest-a-ment of what the value is we are putting back into the soil.
Now let's hear what everyone thinks about all of this.