Nutrition is an important part of a balanced diet and human food has a nutrition facts label on the package to read and help in deciding on nutritious food. A balanced diet is important for livestock also but there isn’t a label on the side of a hay bale for producers to read. It is also hard to guess the nutrition values of hay because quality can be greatly varied. Forage quality is affected by many factors including maturity stage, temperature, fertilizer, amount of leaf retention, and harvesting/ storage practices.

To keep producers from guessing at the quality of their forage and many producers did not have their hay tested because of cost and ability to do so.  Crittenden County Agriculture and Natural Resources agent worked to provide an easy and free way to test their hay’s nutritive value by developing a hay quality contest in the Crittenden County Lions Club Fair. The agent utilized a forage testing probe and cordless drill, which was purchased using ANR program support funds from the county, to sample the hay bales of local hay producers. Those hay samples were analyzed by the Kentucky Department of Agriculture Forage Testing program. Once the analysis was done the winners were chosen in four different categories, mixed legumes and grasses, cool season grass, warm season grass, and alfalfa. The results were mailed to participants along with printed sheets from the UK Forage Supplement Tool. The Forage Supplement Tool gives a good estimate of what feed supplements would be needed based on the hay quality results and what stage of production (lactation, mid gestation or late gestation) the beef cow is in.

The contest would not have happened without the partnership between Crittenden County Extension, Crittenden County Lions Club Fair, and Kentucky Department of Agriculture Forage Testing program. The producers who won were excited to see that there efforts of harvesting the hay was paying off. The producers who didn't win were glad to see where they could improve on next years hay production. Each producer is better able to balance a diet for their animals based off of these results.There are plans to continue this free service next year.