As hay provides dwindle, College of Missouri Extension agronomist Rusty Lee is displaying forage producers the right way to use a easy, cheap therapy to stretch feed provides throughout drought.
Ammoniation boosts the nutritive worth and digestibility of poor-quality hay, cornstalks, wheat straw and different feedstuffs that livestock producers flip to when hay is briefly provide, Lee says. The method makes roughages extra digestible for cows and horses.
Ammoniation takes one week to a month, relying on temperature: two to a few weeks in summer time (Lee recommends one week if the temperature is 85 F or greater) and as much as 4 weeks in winter. Lee says three weeks is an efficient common.
Lee provides these steps:
- Stack spherical bales seven at a time – 4 bales aspect by aspect and three on prime.
- Cowl with heavy mil 100-foot plastic.
- Safe the perimeters of the plastic by protecting with soil or waste lime. Tamp soil right down to seal securely.
- Prefill your ammonia tank to the correct quantity to keep away from danger of overtreating. Lee suggests 60 kilos of anhydrous ammonia per ton of hay.
- Slowly add ammonia by cracking the valve on the anhydrous ammonia tank. Permit ammonia to trickle into the center of the hay bales in a single day. Put on correct security gear when working round ammonia.
- Air out bales three days earlier than feeding to permit the ammonia to clear. Don’t uncover in windy situations. Air out earlier than testing forage to verify enchancment.
Present anhydrous costs run about $960 per ton. This interprets to $28.80 for the beneficial 60 pound per ton fee. That’s $14.40 of anhydrous per 1,000-pound bale, says Lee.
“By spending $14.40, plus some labor, we are able to enhance the feed worth of a $60 straw bale,” he says. “It doesn’t turn into the equal of excellent grass hay, however with good hay eclipsing $100 per bale, the $14.40 spent ought to make a constructive return on funding.”
Solely ammoniate poor-quality forages, Lee says. Excessive-quality forages can turn into poisonous after ammonia therapy and trigger “loopy cow” syndrome when fed.
After ammoniating, uncover and air out for about three days. Then take a look at forage high quality utilizing procedures described within the MU Extension publication “Missouri’s Final Feed Different: Ammoniated Tall Fescue” at https://extension.missouri.edu/agw1003.
Ammoniation can also scale back toxicity from endophyte-infected forages. MU Extension state forage specialist Craig Roberts says MU research present that ammoniated tall fescue is about 5 occasions much less poisonous than contaminated pastures.
Ammoniation can double the crude protein of low-quality forages and enhance the full digestible vitamins by as much as 20% (40% TDN earlier than, 48% TDN after), says MU Extension beef nutritionist Eric Bailey.
Producers ought to contemplate herd dietary wants when feeding ammoniated forages. “Vitality can be limiting in diets constructed round ammoniated low-quality forages, particularly for cows nursing calves,” Bailey says. “Ammoniated forage will meet the nutrient necessities of pregnant, nonlactating females, however any winter-calving cows with a calf or cows within the final trimester of gestation earlier than calving will want extra vitality complement.”
