The SCNY team is collecting scissor cuts of growing grass fields this spring to provide information about quality changes over time to provide information to dairy and livestock farmers who may harvest feed at different qualities to feed to different livestock classes.
Scissor cut analysis for three weeks in May
Reported in the tables and graphs below are weekly cuttings from farms across SCNY. Nutrients of Adjusted Protein, ADF, NDF, TDN, NDFD 30h and uNDF240 are shown. Nutrients changed as anticipated, although this year feels at least a week ahead of time compared to normal. Some farms have already cut fields for forage harvest. Next week’s scissor cuts will likely be our last week.
| 5/16/2024 | Table 1 | |||||
| Available Protein | ADF | NDF | TDN | NDFD30 | uNDF240 | |
| farm 1 | 17.9 | 28.4 | 57.1 | 64 | 72 | 7.9 |
| farm 2 | 16.8 | 32.8 | 58 | 65 | 62.9 | 11.8 |
| farm 3 | 21.8 | 30.1 | 56.2 | 68 | 66.1 | 11.8 |
| average | 18.8 | 30.4 | 57.1 | 65.7 | 67.0 | 10.5 |
| 5/22/2024 | Table 2 | |||||
| Available Protein | ADF | NDF | TDN | NDFD30 | uNDF240 | |
| farm 1 | 13.3 | 36 | 60.5 | 66 | 62.6 | 12.9 |
| farm 2 | 10.2 | 32.2 | 61.1 | 71 | 64.3 | 9.1 |
| farm 4 | 14.7 | 36.9 | 62.3 | 66 | 58.5 | 13.5 |
| average | 12.7 | 35.0 | 61.3 | 67.7 | 61.8 | 11.8 |
| 5/29/2024 | Table 3 | |||||
| Available Protein | ADF | NDF | TDN | NDFD30 | uNDF240 | |
| farm 1 | 11.6 | 40.6 | 62.2 | 65 | 46.1 | 22.8 |
| farm 4 | 13.1 | 37.1 | 56.9 | 64 | 49.7 | 19.1 |
| average | 12.4 | 38.9 | 59.6 | 64.5 | 47.9 | 21.0 |
Reminder on Forage Quality for Livestock Classes
Explanation of NDF Goals & TDN Goals for Beef Cattle Forage, courtesy of CCE Delaware County Team
The CCE Delaware County team’s latest post should be up soon, link to the May 21st report can be found here.
Cutting later than you wanted?
Have a read at this article on forage particle size, written by Rick Grant of Miner Institute. Minimizing chop length for feed that’s gotten too mature is not a silver bullet, but it may have some advantages over feed of similar nutrient content that is chopped longer.