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Comparisons between Alfalfa Silage and Hay¹

Departments of Dairy and Biochemistry, Michigan State University, East Lansing

ABSTRACT

Comparisons were made between alfalfa harvested as silage or hay and fed to cattle and sheep. Feedable silage amounted to 71 to 90% of the dry matter ensiled, and organic matter lost as seepage from direct-cut silage amounted to 4 to 7%. For one year early-cut forage (hay and silage) was more digestible and produced greater intakes and live weight gains in heifers and sheep than did that cut three weeks later, but for the next year no such differences were found. Forage treated with a mechanical press to decrease water content or treated with formic acid was compared to direct-cut silage. No marked differences in silage composition, digestibility, and performance by cattle or sheep were noted. In six trials comparing direct-cut silage with hay, cattle and sheep consumed more dry matter as hay than as silage, yet performance was not consistently greater with hay. Dry matter from silages contained more energy, ether extract, and less hemicellulose than the companion hay, and the energy from silages was slightly more digestible. Thus, the digestible energy value as calories per gram dry matter for silages was about 1.24 times that of companion hays.

¹ Published with the approval of the Director of the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station as Journal Article no. 4374.