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Relationship between Score Card Evaluation of Hay and Actual Nutritive Value¹

Department of Dairy Science University of Wisconsin, Madison

ABSTRACT

The best way to evaluate a hay is to feed it to the class of animals for which it is intended and note the digestibility, intake, and animal performance. Of course, there are many cases where this cannot be done and a prime example is Extension programs with farmers, in which improvement in forage quality is being stressed.

Because of the familiarity of dairymen with dairy cow score cards, Extension dairymen have used hay and silage score cards to teach forage quality. One such score card for hay was developed by Professor G. M. Werner of Wisconsin, to be used as an educational tool in Extension programs. The score card was designed to encourage farmers to (a) cut hay earlier, (b) do a better job of saving leaves, and (c) handle and cure the hay properly, to prevent losses from excessive heating and mold development. The score card was evaluated by Nichols (4) and found to be repeatable and to reflect nutritive value. The reliability of this score card was checked further by Fairchild et al. (3). Repeatability of the score card was found to be highly significant, whether considered on a within-judge or between-judge basis. Among the total of 129 samples of alfalfa or alfalfa-bromegrass used, the average correlations between final score and crude protein, crude fiber, estimated TDN (calculated from chemical analyses) were .50, –.43, and .43, respectively, and were highly significant. Unfortunately, animal digestibility and intake data were not available on these samples. The present study was undertaken to compare scorecard judging with animal digestibility and intake information.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Hays. The 20 hays used in this study were made from alfalfa-bromegrass grown at three University of Wisconsin farms as part of a larger study on the effects of date of cutting and geographic location on nutritive value.

¹ Published with the approval of the Director of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station.