Billdevaul
Well-known member
I have a great pasture of Bahia and Im wondering what the nutritional value is as far as protien ... wondering what I should supplement with or if I neeed to at all....
What kind of nutritional value does Bahia have??
- Thread starter Billdevaul
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Campground Cattle
Well-known member
Billdevaul":22tc8mee said:
It has stunted all my cattle.
Just joking it's the poor mans coastal of East Texas and thats all mine get year around.
Billdevaul
Well-known member
well heck ya mean if'n I feed just that I'll have them there expensive miniture cows??
lol
yeah it grows good in this sandy dry ,(wet today) climate
Billdevaul":2cgoldef said:
The protein content of a plant is directly proportional to the amount of nitrogen intake. (except legumes - they make their own nitrogen)
Bahia will grow in a fairly high PH soil, which might mean it is lacking in calcium.
The ADF of Bahia depends on the stage of growth.
In other words, there is good bahia and poor bahia. Depends on what you give it to eat and how young/old it is.....
Billdevaul
Well-known member
I usually hit it with a good dose of triple 14 just towards the end of winter and again mid spring it grows like wild fire...
heres a pic of part of that pasture in late fall it is a lot taller in the late spring...
heres a pic of part of that pasture in late fall it is a lot taller in the late spring...
floridahay
Member
As MikeC has stated a lot of the quality of any forage depends on the fertilization and the stage of growth that it is harvested at. When we had cows they would very often prefer the Bahia to the Coastal Bermuda that I sell to the horse market. The problem with Bahia for hay is that it doesn't yield as well as the Bremudas do but it is a good grass when managed well.
Billdevaul
Well-known member
I thought the first couple years i was over fertilizing the bahia but doing it as I said it seems to get rid of a lot of the weeds, they dont seem to like all the nitrogen
denoginnizer
Well-known member
Is that a bottle calf?Billdevaul":21sw1ljc said:I usually hit it with a good dose of triple 14 just towards the end of winter and again mid spring it grows like wild fire...
heres a pic of part of that pasture in late fall it is a lot taller in the late spring...
Billdevaul
Well-known member
yes it was sold it at auction this fall at 570 pounds .. had a pot belly (hay belly)
BC
Well-known member
Billdevaul":3ixk7b9s said:
You might want to do a soil test and see if you can get away from having to add the phosphorus in the 14-14-14 . Grasses use nutrients in a 3-1-2 or 4-1-4 ratio (improved bermudas). If you have just been grazing and not cutting hay from that field you might get by with just nitrogen and let the animals recycle the phosphorus and potassium.
skyline
Well-known member
Was that picture taken last year? We live just south of you and our pastures were burned up by mid-summer. My cows would have been in heaven standing in a field of bahia like that last year. But even as I speak, we're getting more rain. Life is good.
One note on bahia. I had a strong stand that had topped out a few years ago and my horses were grazing it during the day. They started getting tender footed and I called the vet out to check on them. Before he even got out of the truck good, he pointed to the bahia and said that's what the problem is. Apparently horses will selectively eat the tops and the tops have a tremendously high protein content. For horse grazing, he advised cutting it before it tops out.
One note on bahia. I had a strong stand that had topped out a few years ago and my horses were grazing it during the day. They started getting tender footed and I called the vet out to check on them. Before he even got out of the truck good, he pointed to the bahia and said that's what the problem is. Apparently horses will selectively eat the tops and the tops have a tremendously high protein content. For horse grazing, he advised cutting it before it tops out.
skyline
Well-known member
MikeC":lgf4tgmu said:
Yep, "seed out" would have been a better choice. And, yes it is hard to get ahead of that stuff.
Billdevaul
Well-known member
The pic was taken last fall... around end of sept... I got real lucky with mine it just seemed to hang on and hang on... my neighbors was all burned up to.. I cut mine all summer at about 6 inches and it thickened up and stayed in real good never did burn till october it started dying out then i cut it really short and rake the pasture, I drag a cyclone fence thru the pasture about once a month and break up all the manure it helps to... we are getting really greeen now in the last few days with all this rain.. keep it commin we need it....
