Why Do We Make Hay?

– reprinted from the 1998 “Forage Systems Update,” Forage Systems Research Center, Linneus, MO, Jim Gerrish, Editor

Do you ever stop and think why exactly do we make hay? That is, what is the primary objective for making hay? The most common response would be: to provide winter feed. That certainly is a high priority, but what happens when we let that be our main objective? Continue reading

Spelt as Cattle Feed or, Faster Horses, Younger Women, Older Whiskey, More Money

Steve Boyles, OSU Extension Beef Specialist

After twenty years of using my Ph.D. in nutrition I’m not sure I’m a better livestock nutritionist but I’m definitely becoming an old nutritionist. On my first job at North Dakota State University I had the honor of working with an older nutritionist, Dr. Ladon Johnson. He got his Ph.D. in nutrition from Ohio State a long, long, time before. He told me some interesting nutritionist axioms.

1. You can probably feed 10-20% of any grain, even if you don’t know what it is.

2. Two pounds of alfalfa can get rid of a lot of sins Continue reading