Written by: Loren Daentl, PAS Insight FS Feed Specialist
One of the beauties of animal agriculture and feeding ruminants is their ability to digest forage. The role Forage plays in feeding livestock is critical. It’s the lifeblood of our livestock operations. As a nutritionist there’s not a day when the forage on an operation isn’t forefront of my mind. We constantly measure, adjust, remeasure, and readjust rations to accommodate both our forage inventories and our forage quality. As farmers strive to produce what they need, my approach has always been “why buy it if we can produce it?”
In my role, I have the opportunity to work with a variety of farms. But at the end of the day, regardless of the operation, I commonly troubleshoot the same concerns when it comes to forage.
Concern #1 - Not enough forage
One of the most common concerns revolving around forage is the fear that we will not have enough. Often it is an issue of “acres per head” and we need to be very strategic in the crops we plant and the structure of the ration to accommodate for this.
Often a lack of forage is due to an environmental crop failure. Maybe we experience heavy rains, drought, winter kill, the list of blights mother nature can throw at us has no end.
Concern #2 - Too much forage
Although less common than not enough forage, on occasion there are farms that have too much forage on hand. It is December and the operation is bragging that we have yet to start feeding this years haylage crop as we are still using up supply from the previous year. Although this may be seen as a “good problem”, I will argue that we have a lot of capital tied up in a forage reserve that potentially could be valuable in another area of the farm. Further, depending on forage quality and production goals, we can often feed more forage in these instances and save on a purchased feed, eliminating a cash expense for the farm.
Concern #3 - Forage quality
If we are fortunate enough to have adequate forage inventory, the underlying concern will always be the quality of forage. Forage quality can make a huge impact on cash flow and purchased feed expenses. Forage quality could also have a huge impact on animal performance and production.
However, we cannot ignore the cost of producing forage, as it can be significant. Often a farm will accept a yield/quality tradeoff to achieve the quality we desire, but I will argue that can come at a huge expense. Potentially costing the operation more than a purchased feed would have.
FS Team approach to forage management
I would highly encourage any farm to make sure the nutritionist and agronomist are in contact and that their philosophies are in alignment with the operational goals. Insight FS has a team of nutritionists and agronomists that collaborate to tackle this vast world of forage. Our team will help manage forage inventories, analyze forage quality, estimate the true cost of your forages, write diets to best fit your forage situation, and recommend agronomic solutions that fit your operations needs. As important as forage is to the cashflow and overall profitability of your farm, it is vital to have confidence that this segment of your operation is optimized.