Post by avejoseph on Apr 21, 2023 8:42:02 GMT -5
Hoping you guys could help me decide how to go forward. Sorry if this gets windy….
We have our regular alfalfa guy we buy from and he knows hay well. Last year he got a bale wrapper and sold us some of those. We found that the little areas that got punctured got mold and it just wasn’t as good as we thought. So we decided not to go with those rounds. We have two left. We used to buy small squares from him and he has 80/20 and 60/40 alfalfa grass hay mixes. We would get the 80/20 and then supplement with other grass. Well we filled the section of the barn last year with his small squares and it was first cutting because he was going to spray second crop due to some mites that were prevalent last year. It was softer and not so steamy so we thought it was ok. I didn’t feed much because it was going into the barn for winter. We had more rounds that we were using so that hay just sat in the barn all winter until now. We also got some large squares of alfalfa from our local hay auction because we wanted to try squares in our new feeder setup. Well they were a good deal so DH bought a dozen of them. We fed a couple before we dried off our cow and I noticed a little mold on the bottom where it was matted but not bad and could pull that off.
Fast forward to a week ago one of our heifers calved and I am feeding her separately from the other two dry cows and am
more hands on with the hay. The small squares we have are fluffy, thin stemmed stuff and I don’t see much alfalfa in it. I don’t see mold but there is a white dust that comes out of them. But I can’t smell anything off, I only see that white dusty smoke. The cows don’t like it that much but the dry cows seem to eat it more than the fresh heifer. Now the alfalfa, it has some stemmy pieces in it so they definitely pick around in it for the leaves. I have noticed where a weed or something got in there and must have had more moisture because that weed would have mold on it but not the alfalfa. I can pull it out easily. All this to say is that I’m disappointed and frustrated with what we have and worried that maybe there’s more mold than I think (like the dust is showing) and I could cause mycotoxins in the cows.
I asked DH last night if we could sell this hay for cheap and I found a guy that I can get 60/40 3rd cutting alfalfa orchard grass that’s lined wrapped and fair price. Yay, ideal! The problem is the bales are 1500# and our tractor can only really do the half ton bales. I know this stressed him out because he just sees more work and doubling hay costs but we have two more cows to freshen in the next month and I want to be prepared to feed them the best we can. We had droughts the past two years and can’t rely on our pasture for a whole lot.
We have good grass round bales that can get the dry cows through until they freshen but then do I continue that and use the alfalfa? Just being careful to pull out anything that looks off? Or do I try to swap everything out? Or something else?
I’m disappointed in those small squares and not even sure what it is. I feel it’s too late to say anything to that farmer. We’ve had picky cows before and my DH is used to beef cows so I knew he would be hesitant about this.
And…it’s not the best time of year to buy or sell hay so he’s afraid if we buy something, we won’t be able to sell what we have and we have very limited storage space.
Any thoughts? I most worried about the mold and mycotoxins issue but don’t know a whole lot about that…
Thanks
We have our regular alfalfa guy we buy from and he knows hay well. Last year he got a bale wrapper and sold us some of those. We found that the little areas that got punctured got mold and it just wasn’t as good as we thought. So we decided not to go with those rounds. We have two left. We used to buy small squares from him and he has 80/20 and 60/40 alfalfa grass hay mixes. We would get the 80/20 and then supplement with other grass. Well we filled the section of the barn last year with his small squares and it was first cutting because he was going to spray second crop due to some mites that were prevalent last year. It was softer and not so steamy so we thought it was ok. I didn’t feed much because it was going into the barn for winter. We had more rounds that we were using so that hay just sat in the barn all winter until now. We also got some large squares of alfalfa from our local hay auction because we wanted to try squares in our new feeder setup. Well they were a good deal so DH bought a dozen of them. We fed a couple before we dried off our cow and I noticed a little mold on the bottom where it was matted but not bad and could pull that off.
Fast forward to a week ago one of our heifers calved and I am feeding her separately from the other two dry cows and am
more hands on with the hay. The small squares we have are fluffy, thin stemmed stuff and I don’t see much alfalfa in it. I don’t see mold but there is a white dust that comes out of them. But I can’t smell anything off, I only see that white dusty smoke. The cows don’t like it that much but the dry cows seem to eat it more than the fresh heifer. Now the alfalfa, it has some stemmy pieces in it so they definitely pick around in it for the leaves. I have noticed where a weed or something got in there and must have had more moisture because that weed would have mold on it but not the alfalfa. I can pull it out easily. All this to say is that I’m disappointed and frustrated with what we have and worried that maybe there’s more mold than I think (like the dust is showing) and I could cause mycotoxins in the cows.
I asked DH last night if we could sell this hay for cheap and I found a guy that I can get 60/40 3rd cutting alfalfa orchard grass that’s lined wrapped and fair price. Yay, ideal! The problem is the bales are 1500# and our tractor can only really do the half ton bales. I know this stressed him out because he just sees more work and doubling hay costs but we have two more cows to freshen in the next month and I want to be prepared to feed them the best we can. We had droughts the past two years and can’t rely on our pasture for a whole lot.
We have good grass round bales that can get the dry cows through until they freshen but then do I continue that and use the alfalfa? Just being careful to pull out anything that looks off? Or do I try to swap everything out? Or something else?
I’m disappointed in those small squares and not even sure what it is. I feel it’s too late to say anything to that farmer. We’ve had picky cows before and my DH is used to beef cows so I knew he would be hesitant about this.
And…it’s not the best time of year to buy or sell hay so he’s afraid if we buy something, we won’t be able to sell what we have and we have very limited storage space.
Any thoughts? I most worried about the mold and mycotoxins issue but don’t know a whole lot about that…
Thanks
