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Scissors Cut Results 5/17/2022

Dairy – Go, Go, Go! – Beef Wait

With a little rain and lots of warm weather hay grew rapidly this week. Maturity advanced right along with the height with most fields at target fiber level for dairy quality forage. Legume fields are the exception, not quite at target quality.

Grasses grew as much as 9 inches in the past week and legumes as much as 7 inches (both averaged 5 inches). With warm weather fiber advanced rapidly for grasses, averaging 1.6 points/day, but only 1 point per day for legumes. TDN decreased only slightly this week, but we would expect it to decrease more rapidly as maturity advances.
The following table is my best guess for when hay will reach target quality for various classes of cattle. We have less experience with the beef estimates, but we feel comfortable that all fields are more than a week away from target for most beef cow groups.

   

Beef
Dairy Growing Calf Growing Yearling Lactating Cow Mature Dry Cow
Grass NOW NOW 7 days 7-10 days 14-18 days
Mixed NOW NOW 7 days 7-10 days 14-18 days
Legume 7-10 days 7-10 days 10-14 days 10-14 days 14-18 days

The Table on the below has each sample location, listed by Town and elevation, and lists the species sampled, average height, Neutral Detergent Fiber (NDF), Neutral Detergent Fiber Digestibility (NDFD), and Total Digestible Nutrients (TDN). We have sampled grass, legume and mixed legume/grass fields across the county and at elevations from 1070 to 2100 feet. Look for locations with similar forage type and elevation to your farm.

We report several measures of forage quality. Different types and groups of cattle have different demands and each measure tells a slightly different story. If harvesting for dairy forage, we suggest harvesting based on NDF, for beef choose an appropriate TDN target or the animals you will be feeding

NDF – Neutral Detergent Fiber is a measure of the structural fiber in a feed sample. NDF correlates well with how much forage a cow can eat (gut fill). Earlier cut hay = lower NDF = higher dry matter intake = higher performance.
NDF goals for Dairy Cattle Forage: Grass hay and silage – 48 – 55%, MMG hay & silage – 40 – 50%, MML hay & silage – 38 – 45%, Legume hay & silage – 36 – 42%

NDFD – NDF Digestibility As forage plants mature, the fiber percentage increases, and at the same time the digestibility of the fiber decreases. NDFD measures the digestibility of fiber by rumen fluid. We report 24hr NDFD as an indicator of forage digestibility. Higher digestibility = more energy available from a forage. Grasses inherently have a higher NDF digestibility than legumes.

TDN – Total Digestible Nutrients The sum of the digestible fiber, protein, lipid, and carbohydrate components. TDN is a measure of energy available from forage and is related to digestible energy. TDN is useful for beef cow rations that are primarily forage. Higher TDN values indicate higher energy available, cattle groups with higher energy demands require higher TDN intakes.

Special thanks to Dairy One for providing forage analysis

Delaware County Scissor Cuts Results May 10, 2022 May 17, 2022
Farm Town Elev Species Ht aNDFom NDFD TDN Ht aNDFom NDFD TDN
Darling Andes 1520 Tall Fescue 7 34.4 72 73 11 43.3 71 70
Eisele Andes 1412 Orchardgrass 10 39.6 78 73 16 50 74 70
Evans Andes 1820 Orchardgrass 12 43.7 73 70 19 49.4 70 73
Gladstone Andes 1960 Mixed grasses 15 41.7 76 72 22 50.8 72 71
Mattson Colchester 1090 Alf(50%)/Tfesc 8/8 35.2 65 72 12/12 36.7 49 70
Frisbee Delhi 1380 Tall Fescue 11 42.3 72 71 19 55.3 61 71
Mushkoday Delhi 1340 Alf(90%)/Tim 11/13 27.3 61 72 16/20 34.5 57 70
Rama Delhi 1400 Clov(30%)/Grass 5/12 38.8 76 73 16/21 52.4 61 68
Sherwood Delhi 1610 Mixed grasses 12 41.3 75 72 23 56.4 62 69
Sullivan Delhi 1425 Clov(35%)/Orch 12 37.3 73 73 17 53.7 67 69
Buel Franklin 1260 Alf(50%)/Orch 9/15 36.4 76 72 16/21 51.1 64 69
Grant Franklin 1650 Mixed grasses 13 39.6 76 72 21 46.8 72 71
Taggart Franklin 1720 Mixed grasses 13 42.7 66 73 16 53.3 60 69
DiBenedetto Halcott 1730 Orchardgrass 15 39.7 79 72 20 50.2 71 72
Hutson Hamden 1275 Alfalfa 7 24.9 61 75 13 35.4 62 71
Moody Hamden 2100 Orchardgrass 9 37.9 72 73 12 49.2 68 70
Reed Hamden 1740 Ken. Bluegrass 6 37.1 73 71 10 53.2 64 68
Scobie Hamden 1740 K. Bluegrass 10 41.2 71 71 12 53.2 65 70
Hillriegel Hardenburgh 1670 Orchardgrass 16 43 76 72 20 60.2 56 67
Hager Kortright 2000 Mixed grasses 10 33.9 84 75 13 46.3 74 72
Haynes Kortright 1900 Orchardgrass 11 40 77 71 17 52.1 67 70
Keator Meredith 1600 Tall Fescue 10 38.2 75 75 14 48.8 68 72
Elliot Middletown 2060 Reed Canarygrass 15 43.9 75 72 24 52.7 68 70
Gray Middletown 1910 Reed Canarygrass 15 45.9 68 69 19 56.7 65 67
Coombe Neversink 1420 Tall Fescue 9 42.1 71 71 14 55.1 65 66
Krum Neversink 1730 Ken. Bluegrass 6 44.6 69 72 10 52.2 66 71
Albano Roxbury 1950 Mixed grasses 10 38.9 76 71 13 50.3 68 71
Gockel Roxbury 1890 Mixed grasses 14 42.5 76 71 14 54.9 64 70
Kuhn Roxbury 1980 Mixed grasses 10 39.4 75 73 14 48.8 68 70
Perry Roxbury 1830 Orchardgrass 13 47.6 64 69 18 53.7 65 69
Johnson Sidney 1070 Orchardgrass 14 39.7 76 74 22 48.9 68 71
Johnson Sidney 1070 Alfalfa 10 25.3 59 71 17 30 58 71
Deysenroth Stamford 1510 Mixed grasses 9 37.3 78 71 9 50.6 66 71
Hanselman Stamford 1488 Alfalfa 9 27.5 55 73 12 33.2 57 70
Martin Stamford 1560 Alf(65%)/Orch 8/13 32.4 72 72 12/13 46.4 69 68
Ryan Stamford 1800 Mixed grasses 7 46.4 71 69 11 51.7 65 71
Trovato Stamford 2080 Mixed grasses 8 42.2 68 70 15 47.6 67 73
LaTourette Tompkins 1210 Clov(20%)/grass 8/10 34.8 75 74 6/20 53.9 67 70
Marsiglio Walton 1750 Orchardgrass 9 39.8 67 72 12 50.3 57 70
Wickham,B Walton 1170 Alf(30%)/Orch 9/15 40.4 76 72 15/18 43.9 66 69
Wickham,D Walton 1240 Wclov(50%)/grass 4/12 38.2 80 71 8/24 36.3 64 73
Av Grass Ht 11.4 15.7
Av Legume Ht 8.0 13.8