It's important for successful farmers to be able to analyze hay. It's important whether you grow your own hay or your are looking to purchase hay to understand what determines good quality hay verses bad quality hay.

There are two methods of hay evaluation: visual and chemical. Chemical analysis is the only true indicator of nutritional value, but visual analysis can be used to provide an indication of overall hay quality.

Visual Evaluation

Stage of Maturity at Time of Harvest
The presence of large, coarse stems and seed heads indicates that the plant was more mature than desired at the time of harvest. An abundance of leaves and lack of seed heads is desirable. Leaves contain more digestible energy and protein than stems, and leafiness decreases as the plant matures.

Texture
Stem size and flexibility provide an indication of how palatable the hay will be to livestock. Large, long, hard, and rigid stems are much less desirable than small, flexible stems.

Presence of Foreign Material
Look closely for insects, weeds (especially poisonous weeds such as crotalaria), and trash (wire, nails, etc.).

Color

In general, a bright green color indicates high vitamin and protein content. A dark brown color is a sign that the hay was heat-damaged, which may cause mold. A light beige color indicates sun-bleaching. Used alone, color is a relatively poor measure of quality - be sure to consider all of these factors together.

Aroma
Smell the hay - a musty or moldy odor indicates that the hay was not cured or stored properly and mold is present. Mold will appear as a grayish-white dust when the bale is slapped, or as a white flaky substance in tightly packed sections of the bale. Mold can be harmful to some animals and usually eliminates hay as a horse feed.

Chemical Evaluation

Many State Cooperative Extension Offices offer analysis of forages and grain mixes. They usually send the test to a laboratory to analyze levels of dry matter, protein, digestible energy, minerals, etc. Nitrate levels can also be tested. Feed testing kits are usually available from the Cooperative Extension in each county. A copy of feed analysis results are mailed to the party who requested analysis as well as the Cooperative Extension Service in that county. If you need assistance in interpreting a feed analysis report, contact the Extension Agent in your county.

Feed values on the analysis report are expressed on both a dry matter (DM) and an as sampled basis. DM values indicate the nutrient content of feed with the water removed. This permits the comparison of different feeds. DM basis is considered to be the best indicator of nutritional value. All values listed under the as sampled heading show nutrients with the moisture included in the sample. Due to water dilution, as sampled nutrient values will always be lower than dry matter values.

Advantages to the use of feed analysis include:

• Increased accuracy of ration formulation
• Provides ability to monitor accuracy of feed mixing services
• Identifies good quality feed ingredients
• Identifies inadequate or toxic rations before damage occurs
• Assists in the diagnosis of nutritional-related diseases