It was really dry here in Southern Ontario this past summer so there is very little grass that grew back for second cut so its almost pure alfalfa. Be careful during early fall frosts; cell walls are broken by freezing and make alfalfa highly digestible. Once introduced, every effort should be made to maintain the herd on alfalfa pasture. Early harvested hay generally has a higher nutritional value which declines as time progresses. John PoppManitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives, Tim McAllisterAgriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Walter MajakAgriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Bjorn BergAlberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, Prevention of Pasture Bloat in Cattle Grazing Alfalfa, Comptrollership Support Services Division, Production and Economic Development Division, Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation, For Researchers and Industry Service Providers, Burning of Crop Residue and Non-Crop Herbage Regulation, Impact of the Manitoba Crop Residue Burning Program, Estimating Program Uptake and the Nature of Costs-Benefits in Agro-Manitoba, Study aims to provide new tools for farmers dealing with excess moisture, Intergrated Watershed Management Planning, Basic Good Manufacturing Practices Program, Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP), Federal Acts and Regulations Dealing with Food, Manitoba Acts and Regulations Dealing with Food, Provincial Food Processing and Distribution, Food and Value Added Agriculture Statistics, Manitoba Weather Network Existing Stations, Commercial Community Kitchens For Rent Listing. Alfalfa is not recommended as the only forage for dry cows because of its high calcium content. The most common livestock grass hay varieties include Bermuda, ryegrass, brome, and fescue. Thus, to be sustainable in the future, forages must be a major component of any ruminant production system. Let’s start with hay. Make sure alfalfa hay is not moldy or dusty. Alfasure or Dioctol can also be used to relieve bloat in animals. Oxidative stress is a rampant problem that leads to poor quality yields. Hay is an energy source. The nutritional content of Timothy Hay has been shown to be beneficial for dry cows and cows that are close to calving to prevent low-grade milk fevers for which the cows may be asymptomatic. For this reason, the cost of feed makes up a significant amount of farming expenditure. “If you consider the whole system — from putting up the hay through feeding it — for beef or dairy cows, a dew simulator and/or preservative to put up alfalfa with better leaf retention might be economically positive. Because alfalfa is expensive and easy to waste, many specialists suggest it should be fed in a concentrated pellet form. While making dry hay can be challenging, and even discouraging some years, alfalfa haylage will work at least as nice as dry hay … It would be similar to us eating dried fruit, for example. As a means to control the risk of bloat, some farmers practise co-cropping bloat safe legumes and wilt alfalfa prior to consumption. Feeding Rich Alfalfa Hay to beef cattle - posted in Alfalfa/Hay: I have purchased some second cut alfalfa hay, it is dry hay in 4x5 round bales. This type of grass hay is often cheaper to purchase than alfalfa, orchard, or Timothy hay. Mixing with a good quality grass hay will suffice for most dry cows. However, the part that is eaten can be equal to average quality alfalfa in feeding value. Often, the price seems high, but one is not going to feed alfalfa to beef cows at an all-they-can-eat rate. Alfalfa can be used as: An important point to note when providing alfalfa to livestock is that its nutritional value is dependent on the time of harvest. Alfalfa is typically the cheapest feed supplement in late summer and early fall when grazing cows in their mid-trimester of pregnancy on low quality forages. A combination of home grown hay, purchased alfalfa hay and a mineral supplement can be used to balance the nutritional needs of the cow herd during critical periods of the year. Second cutting alfalfa can entice those cows to eat hay for another couple of weeks - long enough for the new grass to grow up tall enough to sustain the cows, and to sustain itself. Your email address will not be published. Ruminants produce bicarbonate for proper digestion, but they only do that when they’re chewing, especially when they are chewing their … Instead, just a few pounds of alfalfa a day really helps the cows. A third group of cows fed the alfalfa hay ration and the grain and hay ration in alter- With high alfalfa forage feeding, a similar problems is experienced. Do not graze each paddock right to nothing before moving. During most years, excellent quality alfalfa hay is locally abundant and is often underutilized as a supplement in the beef cow industry. Other strategies of bloat prevention such as wilting of alfalfa also lower soluble protein levels in the alfalfa and reduce bloat risk. Avoid stemmy, coarse alfalfa. Although cows can eat alfalfa so at to acquire the necessary nutrients and minerals may exceed! Exceed cow dietary needs, particularly beef cattle can generally tolerate dustier than. 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