Fire Sweep Ranch":op4f6p4t said:
Hay bought WITHOUT a test is worthless! That 5x6 may test at 8% protein, versus the 4x5 at 12%. SO therefore the cows will need to eat more of the 5x6 to get the same nutrition.
I NEVER buy hay without testing it. No one in Missouri tests hay, so I have to test it and pay for it. Example; I bought 78 bales from a friend down the road, contingent on protein and RFV. Well, the protein was 15% dry, and RFV of 112, HOWEVER, the Nitrate was 2.4% which is UNSAFE for pregnant cows. I had to buy it, since it met my criteria, however had I not tested it, I would have fed it to my cows and likely caused ABORTIONS! I am feeding it to my open heifer group, bull group, and horses.
A hay test here is $18, well worth preventing issues.....
Been running cows for over 35 years. Biggest herd was 30 or so. Never tested, got what I could get or what I baled, never had a miscarriage, still born, or abort that I know of. Hay sells by the bale, and nearest scales are 20 miles and a pain to use. As you surely know, once baled hard to tell what's in the bale by looking at it other than stretching your arms across it and pulling out a plug and having a look.
Most hay that you buy comes from non prepared, non-fertilized sources, usually at full maturity, like the field gets cut once, maybe twice a year, never saw a herbicide, and on prepared sources (SS) usually they grow for volume, not quality, so you get a lot of mature plants with large, non-nutritive stems. No scales for weighing. Up to you to figure what you are buying and it's a crap shoot!