Evaluating Hay Quality

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Evaluating Hay Quality

• Terry E. Poole
• Extension Agent
• Frederick County, MD

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Hay QualityEvaluation Factors

• The pie chart shows the impact the five hay
  evaluation factors have on hay quality.
• The two most important factors concerning
  hay quality are stage of harvest and leafiness.
  These two factors are considered to affect 60 of
  hay quality. Color, odor, and softness have a
  less direct impact on hay quality.

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Using a Point System to Evaluate Hay

• Hay quality factors can be assigned a weighed
  number of points based on their importance to the
  overall quality.
• The sum of these numbers can be used to select
  the best quality hay
• The scoring system is as follows
• Stage of Harvest 0 to 30 points
• Leafiness 0 to 30 points
• Color 0 to 15 points
• Odor 0 to 15 points
• Softness 0 to 10 points
• Trash/Weeds - 0 to 30 points

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Hay Quality Factors

• Stage of harvest (30 points)
• refers to the plants stage of development at
  the time of harvest.
• considered to be the most important quality
  factor.
• grass hay is easy to evaluate stage of harvest.
  Grass should be cut in the boot to early
  seed-head stage. Quality grass hay does not have
  many seed-heads.

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Hay Quality Factors

• Stage of Harvest (cont)
• alfalfa should be cut in the late bud to early
  bloom stage.There should not be many blooms or
  any seed pods.
• clover should be cut between the 20 to 50
  bloom stage. This can be determined by observing
  the color and condition of the blooms in the
  bale. There should be little to no mature,
  weathered flowers.

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Hay Quality Factors

• Leafiness (30 points)
• a factor of the ratio of leaves to stems in the
  bale.
• leaves are critical to animal nutrition 60
  TDN, 70 protein, and 90 vitamins.
• hay with lots of leaves indicates good harvest
  technique.

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Hay Quality Factors

• Leafiness (cont)
• as grass and leguminous plants mature, the
  ratio of stems to leaves increases.
• leaves will cling to the stems in leafy
  alfalfa.
• leaf shatter during raking will leave a
  visually stemmy hay.

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Hay Quality Factors

• Color (15 points)
• the most desirable hay is bright, natural
  green.
• color is usually a factor of curing. Hay that
  is rain damaged, sun bleached, moldy, or heat
  damaged during storage will be off color.
• yellowing, especially in grasses, is often an
  indicator of over-maturity.

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Hay Quality Factors

• Color (cont)
• a bale of sun bleached hay should not be judged
  solely on one factor. Often, only the outside of
  the bale gets bleached from mow burn, or
  material from the outside of the windrow. Dig
  through a few bales to be sure of the quality.

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Hay Quality Factors

• Color (cont)
• rain damaged hay tends to make hay dark brown
  or black, stems will often become very brittle.
• heat damaged hay will often be brown and have a
  musty smell from molds developing from hay being
  put up too wet.
• color is another good indicator of hay making
  technique.

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Hay Quality Factors

• Odor (15 points)
• the smell of freshly mowed hay is the standard
  for evaluating hay with the nose.
• think about what the first thing an animal does
  before eating hay.
• odor is the primary reason for animal
  rejection.
• odor is a good indicator for molds and mildew.

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Hay Quality Factors

• Softness (10 points)
• another indicator of maturity. Plants will
  become more fibrous as they mature.
• is a factor in animal acceptance and
  palatability.
• another indicator of hay making technique.

13
Hay Quality Factors

• Trash and Foreign Material (- 0 to 35
  points)
• this includes trash, weeds, and dirt.
• this is another indicator of the quality
  control of the hay producer. This, as much as
  any factor, reflects on the management ability of
  the producer.
• weeds lower nutritional quality, can be
  poisonous, and make it painful to handle hay
  (thistle, spiny pigweed, horse nettle).

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Sum Up Your Scores

• Hay Sample 12
• Stage of Harvest (30pts.) 24
• Leafiness (30pts.) 25
• Color (15pts.) 11
• Odor (15pts.) 13
• Softness (10pts.) 08
• Trash/Weeds (-0 to 30pts.) -09
• Total Score 72 points

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Thank You