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Forage specialist urges farmers to ammoniate low quality hay

A forage specialist urges farmers to ammoniate their hay to improve the nutritional quality because of weather challenges this hay season.

Craig Roberts with the University of Missouri explains the process, “You take the hay and weigh it, then stack it up and put a tarp over it. You treat the hay with three percent anhydrous ammonia and after about three weeks the ammonia has done its job.”

Roberts says ammoniating adds nutritional value and energy, while partially detoxifying forages like fescue hay, “The cell walls are broken down and so it is probably similar chemically to what it was before ammoniation, but after ammoniation it is broken apart and so the cell walls are more digestible.”

Roberts says is important to be aware of safety hazards and evaluate the forage first.

“We want to always treat low quality forages, we don’t want to treat any high-quality forage because the ammonia can react with the sugars in the plant and form compounds that are toxic to the animal.”

Roberts says it is safe to ammoniate when fescue is stemmy and has seed heads. Roberts tells Brownfield ammoniating is especially helpful in times of drought and he hopes to see it used more often.

 AUDIO: Interview with Craig Roberts

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