OCR Text |
Show Forage studies revealed by USU researchers Farmers who have been evaluating eval-uating different methods of harvesting forage will find interest in-terest in the forage studies re ported at the recent Utah State University Dairy Research Re-search Day, notes County Agent Del C. Purnell. Dr. Melvin J. Anderson, with the USDA Agricultural Research Re-search Service, pointed out that individual farm conditions and personal preferences are the major deciding factors in determining de-termining the method of harvest har-vest a person should select. He said that if it is harvested at the proper stage of maturity, forage of high nutritive value and essentially equal for dairy animals can be obtained from pasture, green chop, hay, wilted wil-ted silage haylage. For alfalfa, al-falfa, this means harvesting no later than the bud to one-tenth one-tenth bloom stage. He noted that using a hay conditioner to crush the stems and permit more rapid uniform drying is a desirable asset for harvesting forage to be stored. When weather conditions prohibit pro-hibit hay making, harvesting the crop as wilted silage or haylage can be an advantage. However, the higher cost of extra ex-tra equipment must be weighed against the possibility of obtaining ob-taining higher quality forage at these times. No matter what forage harvesting har-vesting method is selected, it is no better than the care used to prevent loss of leaves and damage from rain and exposure, ex-posure, Dr. Anderson indicated. |