FEEDING FACTS
Springtime Feeding How to manage feeding programs as the season changes
Springtime brings many changes to feeding programs and animal requirements. Hopefully most producers had enough hay to get through to the first good spring grass and your animals all wintered well. As temperatures warm up and grass becomes abundant, the way our animals are managed changes. There are still a number of things to consider while making management decisions concerning our livestock. First, as we look at the welcome signs of green grass 14
Cooperative Farming News
growing faster than our animals are able to mow it down, you need to consider that this early growth is really high in moisture and low in fiber. While these plants are usually very nutritious, until they mature, the amount of water they contain, coupled with the lack of fiber, allows them to pass through the animal so quickly that their true value will not be received. One way to offset that is to offer your animals some decent hay to slow down the rate of passage through the digestive tract, allowing
