Why "Haylage in a Day" is Good for You and Your Cows
“Haylage in a Day” is a concept that has taken our area by storm in the
past year, and with good reason. Making hay or haylage by “hay in a
day” harvest principles is the surest way to achieve the highest
feeding value of your crop and bring your crop from the field with the
best potential to make excellent silage.
Haylage in a Day Harvest Principles
The first harvest principle for hay in a day is to spread the crop as
wide as possible in the field to have it absorb the maximum amount of
sunlight possible. You want the pores on the leaf surface, called
stomata, to be open to allow water to leave the stem through these
stomata. The stomata respond to light and are open during sunlight, but
are closed during very shady days or at night. When we pile first
cutting crop in a tight, high windrow in order to conveniently chop it,
we are shading most of the crop and hindering drying. Those completely
dedicated to the hay in a day system are not simply opening the flutes
on the mower to the widest setting, they are tedding the wet crop
immediately after mowing to spread it over the entire area of the field
and fluff it up to allow maximum penetration of sunlight. All of this
effort speeds drying.
Makes High Quality Haylage
Faster drying causes the plant to stop “breathing” sooner. Even after
the plant is cut, it continues to live as long as the moisture is above
40 percent. While the plant is living it continues to “breathe” (the
correct term is plant respiration). The younger and tender parts of a
plant respire at a greater rate, so the higher quality your hay crop is
a cutting, the faster it will respire. And, the plant burns sugars and
readily digestible material while respiring—sugars and readily
digestible materials that are critical food for the rumen
microor-ganisms.
Research has also shown that hay crop left
overnight will lose more sugars and non-structural carbohydrates the
higher the nighttime temperatures. So, harvesting that 2nd and 3rd crop
alfalfa haylage the same day saves additional losses from the plant by
laying overnight in the field Even if the crop is not weathered and
therefore looks visually appealing, prolonging the time it takes to
crop to lose moisture will lead to increased respiration and loss of
critical nutrients from the crop.
Best Potential for Quality Silage
When those nutrients are lost from the hay crop, it becomes difficult
to make quality silage that will go through a proper ensiling process,
be stable in the storage, and maintain quality in the bunk, especially
under summer temperatures. When the plant loses much of its sugar and
digestible carbohydrates in the field due to prolonged field drying, it
has no sugars to contribute to the bacteria that do the ensiling work.
When bacteria do not have easy access to sugars in the hay crop to be
ensiled, they do not produce as much acid, so the pH stays higher,
making the silage more unstable. Additionally, the slower the rate of
field drying, the greater the breakdown of plant protein to soluble
non-protein nitrogen (urea-like). This non- protein nitrogen will also
contribute to a higher pH in the silage. This higher pH in the silage
can lead to the growth of bacteria that produce butyric acid and
spoiled and / or unstable feed that readily heats in the bunk and has
high mild counts.
In summary, spread that hay crop out across
the entire field, dry it quickly, harvest it for haylage the same day,
save the sugars and proteins, make the optimum hay crop silage and
enjoy the benefits in your milk tank!
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Dave Swartz, County Extension Educator - Dairy, Penn State Extension, Perry & Cumberland County
