'Make hay while the sun shines'. We've all heard the saying but for many farmers and agricultural contractors this statement has become just as applicable when times are hard. Compared with baled silage, relying on hay as a winter feed can seem like a lower cost option. But is it actually a cheaper alternative? Or is it more a case of false economy?

One individual perfectly placed to comment is Dr. Dave Davies. As a director at specialist consultancy Silage Solutions and an advisor to leading manufacturers of balewrap, bpi.agri, Dave is an expert on many types of winter feed.

"In the late 1970s and early 1980s, there was a significant shift from making hay towards making silage and this trend became increasingly pronounced as silage production technology, particularly in relation to big baled silage, advanced" Dave explains. "The shift was so far reaching that producing silage soon became the norm not only for dairy farmers but also across many of the country's beef and sheep farms."

"However with the cost of producing silage increasing as a result of fuel, fertiliser and film to name but a few becoming more expensive, there's been something of a mini revival in hay production lately. It's an understandable move but it's not without its shortcomings and farmers need to realise there are a number of problems associated with making well conserved field dry hay."

Battling the British weather

The first and arguably biggest issue farmers need to contend with when making hay is one most of us are all too familiar with. The unpredictable nature of the British weather.

Making hay demands around four to five days of dry, sunny weather in order to sufficiently dry the crop. As the last few years have shown, adequate windows of opportunity tend to be few and far between. Plus, even if the weather is kind to you, you're still not home and dry.

"To create hay, farmers don't just require a good spell of decent weather" says Dave. "They also need to think about using a stemmy crop with low yields to maximise the speed at which it dries. This in turn leads to a low yield of low quality feed. Worst of all, they have to accept this trade off in both quantity and quality before the crop has even been mown."

With hay, additional losses in terms of feed quality and dry matter content also occur during the wilting process. To highlight this point, Dave puts things into simple figures: "When you cut the crop you have 100% of the total dry matter. When making silage you're left with around 95% of this dry matter after wilting. However, if you're making hay under good conditions you will only be left with 85%. If you're caught out by the weather, this figure can fall even lower, dropping as far as 70%."

Further losses occur during storage. After this, the dry matter losses of silage will be around 85% while with well made hay it will be closer to 80%. With poorly made hay it could be as low as 65%.

Cutting costs means cutting quality

Aside from the dry matter losses and lower feed yields, farmers also have to contend with less productive forage fields when making hay.

As Dave points out: “After a field has been harvested to make hay, there is a big effect on subsequent re-growth. Hay stubbles are slower to recover than silage stubbles and there has to be a delay in fertiliser/slurry application due to the extended wilting period.

“This means the annual forage yield per acre can be significantly lower when making hay causing a probable mid-season shortage in grazed grass at a time when growing livestock need it the most.”

The actual feeding value of the resultant conserved fodder is another vitally important consideration. Whilst it is true to say an early cut hay could be of a similar quality level to silage, in practice it is never cut at the same stage of growth due to the problems associated with wilting lush green grass. As a result, there is usually some sacrifice in nutritional value – a fact that has been demonstrated by considerable scientific research.

“A forage analyses conducted by Sciantec Analytical between the 1st January and 31st December 2010 gave mean values for hay and baled grass silage that spoke for themselves” explains Dave.

“Hay had a Mean D-value of 53.4%, ME of 8.5 MJ/Kg DM and a crude protein of 9.6% whereas the mean for baled grass silage was a D-value of 66%, ME of 10.6 MJ/Kg DM and a crude protein of 12.6%. This means that hay could actually prove a higher cost winter fodder. To compensate for its reduced quality, farmers may need to make greater use of bought-in feeds which in the current market place are increasing in price on a weekly basis.”

Ultimately, hay may be cheaper to produce than baled silage but as to whether it’s cheaper to use long term remains debatable. Considering this and the trade off in feed quality, it seems making hay is one of those occasions in life where you get what you pay for.