Forage Improvement is a Must to survive in the cattle business

The problem was diagnosed about 18 months prior to seeing the results on this farm.  When you stepped on to this farm, you could smell the problem with the hay crop.  Sweet Vernal Grass had continued to take over fields for the past 2-3 years.  Sweet vernal grass was a grass that was used in the early days to sweeten up the hay to make it sell better and to make hay more appealing to livestock.  However, Sweet Vernal grass has no feed value and it needed to be gone from the farm.  

After hours and days of trying to pencil out a renovation plan, the pass plan by forage specialists and then wait for the weather to give a chance to enact the plan.  We felt like we were never going to be able to accomplish this task.  Renovation is hard to accomplish in 1 year, we have worked at this for at least 18 months from start to finish.  After a lucky fall, we had a lucky spring, and we were able to get ½ of the farm renovated and a good hay crop off the fields.  The fields that netted zero bales of hay, because it was all Sweet Vernal Grass for the past 2 years.  We identified issues that led to the destruction of the hay fields.  1.  Making more that 1-2 cuttings of hay every year because we had decent rainfall that keep the field growing.  2.  Never adding enough fertilizer back on the fields to cover the 2-3 cuttings.  3.   Keeping more heifers every year than the pastures or hay supply could handle.  With all of theses going against the hay crop, we lost the hay.  

In May 2022, the hay was cut in May in between rains, and on 13 acres he netted 62-1200 pound bales.  If he had not gotten this under control, he would have to buy hay to feed his cows.  Hay is predicted to cost 50/bale this year.  He would be out at least $3,500 for hay and hauling fees.  Total renovation cost him $1,800.    

On the other acres we took soil samples to investigate his low hay production issues.  The soil test results showed he had a lower pH but with the summer application of lime and fall applied phosphorus and potash all his fields doubled the number of bales he made on them with only one cutting.  All of these were recommendations that I made with the assistance of forage specialists.