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Northeast Iowa | If the field has a uniform stand throughout, then you can get by taking a few probes from several bales. Just make sure it's truly a representative sample -- don't take some from the best looking bale and leave the ugly-looking bale. I usually take cores from 6-8 bales from each field or lot of hay. I run a Penn State Forage Probe into the bale (length-wise on big squares) and dump the sample directly into a Ziploc bag. You can put a lot of samples into a 5-gallon pail and get them from every bale, but it's tough to grab a smaller quantity from that and get a representative sample. Most labs only want a quart bag or so for their test and you'll end up getting more stems and fewer leaves on a handful-grab type of sample from a big pail.
If you think it may be dairy-quality stuff, I'd get the Relative Forage Quality test done in addition to Relative Feed Value. If the hay has some grass in it, the RFQ may be a better indicator of milk yield to the dairy customer than just RFV. I use a late-maturing brome and my dairy customers are always surprised by its performance and test results for as "soft" and grassy as it appears compared to pure alfalfa. | |
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Testing hay feed value
