COLUMN: Handy tools for beef producers

The Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA) has an excellent hay and

haylage testing program for LaRue County farmers. A toll free call to the

KDA Forage Testing Program 1-800-248-4628 will get a trained individual to come to the farm, take samples of your hay/haylage and get the test results back in a short period of time.

The results can be used to accurately, efficiently and economically determine a feeding and supplementation program. The cost is $10 per

"lot.”

A "lot" of hay/haylage is forage taken from the same harvest, the same field, same type of harvest conditions, and with the same method of storage and same weather conditions during harvest.

The testing program can also aid in marketing hay. When hay is tested, you can list that hay for sale on the KDA's computer hay listing service. There is no additional charge for the listing. If you want to buy hay, call the toll free number (1-800-248-4628) for a list of tested hay for sale in Kentucky.

The UK Beef Cow Forage Supplement Tool is a newly developed web-based app that uses forage analysis results to estimate forage intake and supplementation rates for beef cows.

The app, which was produced by UK Extension Beef Specialists, can be accessed at http://apps.ca.uky.edu/forage-supplement-tool/ or downloaded on smart phones for offline use.

Producers are reminded that this is not a ration balancing program, but simply a tool that estimates the nutritional needs of a 1,250 pound mature beef cow in adequate body condition in three stages of production: mid-gestation, late gestation and lactation.

Many variables such as weather conditions, body condition, animal health, palatability of feedstuffs, etc can affect actual intake and animal response to a feeding program and actual feed/forage intake and body condition should be monitored throughout the feeding program.