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The Comparative Nutrient Content of Field-Cured and Barn-Cured Alfalfa Hay¹

University of Illinois^,3

Abstract

For the purpose of determining whether the barn curing of alfalfa hay will yield a more nutritious product for livestock feeding than the field-curing method, alfalfa from five fields on four different farms in Illinois was cured by the two processes and sampled at different stages in the curing and storage periods. Each sample was divided manually into leaf and stem portions, and each portion was weighed and analyed for dry matter, carotene, riboflavin, protein (N x 6.25), crude fiber, ether extract and ash, and its heat of combustion (gross energy) determined in the bomb calorimeter. The analytical and thermochemical results were compared on the dry matter basis.

The measurements thus obtained and expressed were submitted to statistical analysis and justify the following conclusions:

1. Under the weather conditions that prevailed and the management practices that were followed, the rate of dehydration of the hay was much the same by the two methods of curing and was completed within a ten-day period.
   
2. During the initial period of about ten days there was a greater loss in leanness in the field-cured than in the barn-cured hay.
   
3. The barn-cured hays were definitely superior to the field-cured hays in their contents of carotene, riboflavin and protein expressed on the dry basis, and contained definitely less crude fiber. The differences are largely, but not entirely, traceable to the greater leanness of the barn-cured hays, 37.9 percent on the dry basis, as compared with 33.3 percent for the field-cured hay. At cutting, the leafiness of the alfalfa, expressed on the same basis, was 48.5 percent.
   
4. Even under the generally fair weather prevailing during the hay curing in this investigation, the barn-curing method yielded a product containing 14 percent more leaves, 45 percent more carotene, 12 percent more riboflavin and 9 percent more crude protein than the field-curing method. Under less favorable weather conditions and a shorter period of exposure to the weather of the hay to be barn-cured, one might expect greater differences in the nutritive value of hays cured by the two processes.
   
5. The importance of these differences in nutritive value between the field-cured and barn-cured alfalfa hays in practical livestock feeding operations seems to be considerable.
   

¹ This investigation was made possible by the donation of funds to the University of Illinois by the Public Service Co. of Northern Illinois.

² The authors are indebted to Dr. B. Connor Johnson for his comments and suggestions with reference to the carotene and riboflavin determinations, and to Dr. H. W. Norton for his suggestion concerning the grouping of the moisture and carotene data of this investigation. They also wish to express their appreciation to the farmers who cooperated so generously in this investigation: Messrs. O. T. Caron, Parker Taft, Homer Curtiss, Gordon Bleitz, and L. J. Janata.

³ Division of Animal Nutrition and Department of Agricultural Engineering, Urbana.