GOOD QUALITY HAY MAKING: PROCEDURE & METHOD
Dr. Harish Bage,Scientist,IARI
Dairy industry is growing at a fast pace, but our farmers are not moving with the same speed. The requirement of nutrients to high yield is very high because of high milk yield and environmental stress to our dairy animals. The cheaper and easily available sources of nutrients to lactating animals are green fodder which is abundantly available in our farmer’s field. But the major problem in our dairy farming is that the supply of green fodder is not regular for the whole year. So, we have to develop different techniques in our dairy units to ensure that the nutrient product is available around the clock.
The cost of dairy farming especially for milk production is very high, if we are rearing animals alone on feed/grains. Dairy feed costs 70-75% and the green fodder’s contribution is significant. Animal husbandry is an old business, but recent training, new techniques and research work help in making this profession work better. The present number of cattle in Punjab is about 81.2 lakh, which has 62.4 lakh big animals. There is a need for substantial increase in the current yield of green fodder to provide complete and good quality feed to the animals. One animal gets 30.65 kg of fodder per day, which is very low. If 40 kg of green fodder is found in a large livestock daily, then there is an annual requirement of 911 million tonnes of green fodder. There is enough time when our farm has huge quantity of green fodder, but to conserve this supply as hay is one of our main target. Hay making not only conserves this abundance supply, but also ensure regular supply of the nutritious product throughout the year.
Hay making is a process in which fodder is preserved for longer period of time without danger of spoilage, while keeping losses of dry matter and nutrients to the minimum. In this process fodder is dried upto extent that its moisture content is reduced from 70 – 90% to 10- 15% or less. At this moisture the chances of spoilage of fodder are minimum.
Legume crops such as berseem, lucern, guara and cowpea are very good for making hay. In addition to mineral and vitamins in dried legume fodder crops, protein is rich in quantity, which is why it is important to dry the fodder used in ration. There is a special way to cut and store different fodder crops. Hay is made only from leguminous crops which are very rich in protein and minerals. The green fodder crops which are soft, are suitable for making hay, such as berseem, cowpea, lucern and ryegrass. The amount of moisture in green fodder crops is generally 80-90%, but in order to be able to store them, the moisture should be below 15%, which does not harm bacteria and fungus.
Crops for Hay Making:
Crops which are suitable for hay making are both leguminous and non leguminous crops. Mostly lucern (alfalfa), Rhode grass, Barseem, Oat, and Sudan grasses are considered best suitable for hay making. Alfalfa hay is considered the best hay.
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· The crops with stem and more leaves should be selected because leaves are more nutritious · Crop should be harvested at flowering stage (when flowering is initiated) because when crop matures, its lignin content increases and nutritive value decreases. As far as time is concerned, crop should be harvested early in the morning because at this time the dew has dried off. Grasses should be cut at pre flowering stage. · There should be minimum loss of green coloring matter during the process of drying. · The hay should be dried as early as possible. It helps in preservation of nutrients. · For proper curing crop should be tilted occasionally. · For storage the hay should not contain more than 15% moisture
Methods of Hay Making:
Ground or Field Curing Method:
Farm Fences Method: Tripod or Pyramid Method Drying: Advantages of Hay Making: · There is availability of nutritious feed to the animal during the scarcity of fodder. · Fodder can be preserved for longer period of time because due to lack of moisture content enzyme and microbial activities are stopped. · The good quality legume hay may replace certain amount of concentrate in the ration, thus reducing the cost of production · The fodders can be harvested at the stage when there is maximum accumulation of nutrient in the plant. Quality of Hay: · It should have a typical aroma of the of fodder from which it has been prepared · It should be free from foreign material like dust etc. · This should possess reasonable green colour, which gives a rough idea or the quantity of the precursor of vitamin A, the carotene · It should maintain leafiness of original fodder. The loss of leaves during the process will produce a poor quality product. · This should be palatable to animals. The poorly prepared hay generally is not readily accepted by the animals Storage of Hay: In open environment hay can be stored in the following ways. · Hay stack on ground · The chopped hay – In some places hay is chopped before use. The limitation of chopped hay is that this cannot be stored in the open environment because of the heavy losses by wind and rains · The baled hay – The baling process makes the compact cubical bundles of the forages. This reduces the requirement of space in comparison to loose or chopped hay. The bales may be stored in open environment or in the barn · The wafers – For the preparation of wafers or compressed cubical form of hay the long hay is chopped in to 3-5 cm length and then compressed it in the wafering machine |
Hay making is very easy and the product obtained using this technique is very rich in terms of protein, minerals and vitamins. Every farmer can easily adopts this technique. The only thing to keep in mind is proper time of cutting, stages of cutting and size of chaff fodder. For best hay making one can consider the following points:
Details about green fodder crops used for making hay
| Fodder crop (legume) | Sowing time | Seed rate | Seed inoculation |
| Berseem | September (24-30) to October (1-7) | 8-10 kg | Rhizobium |
| Lucern | Mid October | 6-8 kg | Rhizobium |
| Cowpea | March to mid July | CL 367= 12 kg
Cowpea 88= 20-25 kg |
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| Ryegrass | September (24-30) to October (1-7) | 4 kg | – |
The nutritive value (on dry matter basis) of fodders (hay)
| Fodder crop | Protein (%) | Total digestible elements (%) |
| Berseem | 18.0 | 60.5 |
| Lucern | 22.0 | 59.5 |
| Cowpea | 22.5 | 61.2 |
| Ryegrass | 16.0 | 63.5 |
Following are important points for making hay (dry fodder):
- The fodder should be dried in the field for about 3 days.
- Chop 5-8 cm in size of green fodder crop.
- Spread chop fodder on a pucca floor and dry it in the sunlight in a set of 10-15 cm thickness.
- Stir the drying forage every 2-3 hours during the day to speed up the drying process under exposure to the sun and the air.
- By repeatedly stirring the fodder, it dries in 3-4 days.
- When completely dry (usually) after 3-4 days, depending on the frequency of stirring, the intensity of the sun light and air movement of the air, gather the mixture of dried stems and leaves to store or market. When the leaves become cramped, carry the dry fodder up and store it.
- If dry fodder is easily broken, the amount of moisture is correct and it is ready to store. Dried fods can be stored in a chap or strawed room. Normally drying green fodder reduces to 15-20% weight and 10-12% quality.
- Feeding of 10 kg of dry fodder on the basis of 85% dry matter is equivalent to feeding 35-40 kg green fodder. Feeding of animals with non-leguminous fodder, feeding with leguminous dry fodder, reduces the normal distribution of food.
Examination for good hay:
Good hay color remains green and leaves and branches stay connected. This can be assessed by taking the material in the hands, if feels dry, then hay is ready for feed and high nutrients are available in the hay. But in some cases moisture content in the leaves as well as branches is too high then there is need of more drying for producing good quality hay.
Thus, the green fodder crop can be utilized during the shortage of green fodder. At the time of shortage of green fodder, there is excessive use of feed/ration which increases the cost of milk. Hay making is great step of conserving green fodder which further contributes to the success of dairy business. Hope the article gives an idea to the dairy entrepreneurs to conserve the leguminous crop as hay and utilize the nutritious product during the lean period. This can reduce the cost of milk production and increase net profit of dairy farming. Hay making also reduces the daily labour cost of harvesting and chopping which is a labour saving device in our commercial/high tech dairy units.
Reference-On request
