Using a hay bale to supplement your cattle is a tried-and-true method that many producers use. It is reasonably priced compared to other feedstuffs, though the quality can vary depending on many factors.
While using a hay bale, many people tend to look at the upfront cost. While this may be good initially, it is not always best to be the only way. You will want to examine how much that particular will cost per unit of energy or protein.
Like with other feedstuffs, it is always a good idea to break down the price into simple units to compare apples to apples. Though a hay bale may look like a good deal initially, it may not be. Once you have broken down the price into those units, you will find it will cost you more.
Factors affecting hay bale quality
The first factor that can affect the quality of your potential hay bale is how it was baled. The bale will need to be baled tight to keep it at a high quality. If it were baled loose, that would allow moisture to get to the inside and diminish the overall quality. It is possible to test whether a producer correctly did a bale by pressing on it. There was not enough tension in the bale if you could press down more than 1/2 inch.
Bale storage will also affect the amount of Dry Matter in the bale. Proper storage will allow moisture to get inside bales. Depending on how a producer stored the bale, the loss of DM could vary between 10% and 50%.
The age of the bale and the forage’s growth stage will also determine the amount of dry matter available for your animals. If the hay bale has been in storage for a long time, you will lose critical nutrients. I probably do not have to tell you, but bales made from more mature forages will also not provide all the nutrients.
If you want to learn more about how storage can affect the quality of your hay bale, check out my previous post, “5 rules for proper hay storage”.
This loss is why it is essential to have any hay bales you are looking to purchase tested to know what you are getting into.
Determine your Dry Matter
Dry matter is the amount of non-moisture portions in a feed. A high moisture content means your animals will have to eat more to get the nutrients they need.
The dry matter contains all essential nutrients in a given feed or forage. It is where you will find things like the feed’s protein, minerals, and energy content.
The type of feedstuff you want to test will determine how you will collect the sample. To collect the sample from a hay bale, you will want to collect it from the core of the bale. If you are not sure how to do this, you can check an article from the University of Idaho titled “Hay sampling techniques.”
Once you have collected the sample, it is essential to send it to a lab. Your local county extension office should be able to give you the name of a place to use.
When you get the lab results back, they will be divided into two categories: as-fed and Dry Matter. The as-fed column shows what that particular feed provides with the moisture still in it. The dry matter column, of course, shows what it will provide with all of the moisture removed.
Breaking down the hay bale price
Once you have the information from the lab, you can look at the price per unit of either protein or energy on a dry matter basis. Once you have it down to those units, you can compare it to other supplements to determine the most economical option for you.
For this example, I took the information from the USDA Hay Report. Updated weekly, it’s an excellent way to find out what hay is selling for in your area. The report for Central Texas shows that Good to Premium hay is going for $120- $140 per roll and has a Crude Protein of 9%- 13%. For the purpose of this example, I will split the difference and use $130 per roll with 11% CP. Typically, a hay bale will have a dry matter percentage of 90%-80% so that we will use 85%.
Protein
We will first want to break this down to cost per unit of dry matter. The formula we can use to determine this is Cost of feed/% Dry Matter (as a decimal)= Cost per Unit of Dry Matter.
So the formula will be 130/.85= 152.94. What we have is $152.94 per ton of dry matter.
To determine the cost per unit of protein, we will use the formula Cost per unit of dry matter/% Protein (as a decimal)= Cost per unit of protein.
So the formula will be $153 (I rounded up)/ .11 =$1,390.90 per ton of protein. To calculate the cost per pound, divide this number by 2,000 to calculate $0.70 per pound.
Energy
Even though most people supplement energy with hay bales instead of protein, it is okay. We can still use the same formula to find the answer we want. We replace % Crude protein with the % TDN to get the energy per unit.
Since we already have the cost per unit of dry matter, we will not have to do that formula again. We can go ahead with the second one. Coastal Bermuda grass can be 65%—55% TDN for young cutting, depending on the production stage. As the year goes on, it drops to 40% —45% for the more mature variety. I will use 55% for this example since it seems more in the middle.
The formula will be $153/. 55 = $278.18 per ton of energy. To reduce it further, we can divide this by 2,000 and get $0.14 per pound of TDN.
While doing it this way may take a little more effort, it is helpful. Evaluating the feedstuffs on a cost-per-unit basis is beneficial to everyone. The producer can develop a ration that will provide the nutrients without breaking the bank, and the seller can be sure that the price they are asking is fair.
