The majority of livestock producers do not test their hay. Determining and understanding forage quality is necessary to provide a balanced nutrition plan.  Hay testing can provide data that producers and Cooperative Extension Agents use to ensure the nutritional needs of the animal are being met.  Without testing, producers are under or over feeding - leading to poor allocation of resources, inadequate animal needs and wasted money.  

The Central Kentucky Hay Contest was created to generate friendly competition among producers while educating them about forage test analysis and the economic impact of the results.  Eight central Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service Agents organized the contest and gathered samples from their counties to be analyzed by the UK Forage team after preparation by the agents. In total, over 130 samples were analyzed.

Traditionally, hay testing in Franklin County has not been a common practice, with less than 2% of producers using Extension to analyze their hay and develop a ration. Producers either assume their hay is good and under feed, or that it is bad and over supplement by guessing. Either way, resources and money are wasted and their livestock suffer the results.

The competitive nature of the contest resulted in eight local farmers testing 21 samples. These ranged from cool season grass hay to alfalfa; round and square bales. Each participant responded that a better understanding of the results will help guide the supplement purchases in future years, price hay for sale based on quality and/or reallocation of feeding the different lots of hay. 

The culmination was an Awards Banquet that was open to nonparticipants as well. Those that did attend either buy hay for feeding or produce their own. The Educational Workshop and Round Table Discussion after the awards presentation proved to be the most beneficial with much back and forth discussion about specific hay production practices and techniques. Specifically, the buyers in attendance discovered how to select the type and quality of hay needed for their livestock and the producers learned new production methods from their peers.

This was the first of what will be an annual event that should grow several times over. We anticipate more producers to participate as well as several other central Ky counties.