20.

Hay, artificially dried forages, straws and
chaff
20.1 HAYMAKING
- The traditional method of conserving green
crops
- the success was entirely dependent upon the
chance selection of a period of fine weather
but the introduction of rapid drying
techniques using field machinery and barn
drying equipment reduced the need to be
dependent upon the weather.
Ensilage has overtaken haymaking as the preferred
mode of conservation of green forages, haymaking is
generally the more common process.
 Aim in haymaking to reduce the moisture content
of the green crop to a level low enough to inhibit
the action of plant and microbial enzymes.
 The moisture content of a green crop may range
from about 650 g/kg to 850 g/kg, tending to fall
as the plant matures.
 When stored in a stack or bale, the moisture
content must be reduced to 150–200 g/kg.
 The custom of cutting the crop in a mature state
when the moisture content is at its lowest is
clearly a sensible procedure for rapid drying and
maximum yield, but unfortunately the more
mature the herbage, the poorer is the nutritive
value.
Chemical changes and losses during drying
Chemical changes resulting in losses of
valuable nutrients inevitably arise during the drying
process which depends to a large extent upon the
speed of drying.
In the field the loss of water from the swath
is governed by:
1. Natural biological resistance of the leaf and
swath to water loss
2. The prevailing weather conditions and swath
microclimate
3. The mechanical treatment of the crop during
harvesting and conditioning.
The losses of nutrients during haymaking arise from
the action of plant and microbial enzymes,
chemical oxidation, leaching and mechanical
damage.
Action of plant enzymes
 In warm, dry, windy weather, the wet herbage, if
properly handled and mechanically agitated, will
dry rapidly and losses arising from plant enzyme
activity will be small. The main changes involve
the soluble carbohydrates and nitrogenous
components.
Early stages of the drying process,
 changes in individual components of the water-
soluble carbohydrates occur, such as the
formation of fructose from hydrolysis of
fructans.
During extended periods of drying,
 loss of hexoses as a result of respiration, and this
loss leads to an increase in the concentration of
other constituents in the plant, especially the
cell wall components, which are reflected in the
neutral-detergent fibre content.
In the freshly cut crop,
 proteases present in the plant cells rapidly
hydrolyse the proteins to peptides and amino
acids, hydrolysis being followed by some
degradation of specific amino acids.
Grass for hay made on a large scale is commonly cut
with a mower that incorporates a conditioner with
rollers that break the cellular structure of the plant
and allow the air to penetrate the resulting swath
more easily. Additional machinery is used for
turning, or tedding, the swath.
Two methods used in Haymaking:
1. Tripoding
2. Traditional field-curing method
Action of microorganisms Stage of growth
 Bacterial fermentation takes place in cut The most important crop factor determining the
herbage that has lain in the field for a few days, nutritive value of the conserved product.
and leads to the production of small quantities of
 The later the date of cutting, the larger will be
acetic and propionic acids.
the yield, the lower the digestibility and net
 Mouldy hay is unpalatable and may be harmful
energy value, and the lower the voluntary
to farm animals and man because of the presence
intake of dry matter by animals.
of mycotoxins. Such hay may also contain
 Hays made from early-cut crops will be of
actinomycetes, which are responsible for the
higher nutritive value than hays made from
allergic disease affecting man known as
mature crops.
‘farmer’s lung’.
Plant species
Oxidation
Herbage dried in the field causes oxidation and
effects can be seen in the pigments.
 Provitamin carotene is an important compound
affected and may be reduced from 150–200
mg/kg in the dry matter of the fresh herbage to as
little as 2–20 mg/kg in the hay but rapid drying
of the crop by tripoding or barn drying conserves
the carotene more efficiently.
 Sunlight has a beneficial effect on the vitamin D
content of hay because of irradiation of the
ergosterol present in the green plants.
Leaching
Leaching causes a loss of soluble minerals, sugars  Legumes (e.g. Lucerne or alfalfa (Medicago
and nitrogenous constituents, and hence a sativa w/ 200 g/kg DM CP) are generally richer
concentration of cell wall components, which is in protein and minerals than grass hay.
reflected in a higher fibre content.  Cereals are sometimes cut green and made into
*Rain may prolong the enzyme action within the cells, hay, and this usually takes place when the grain
thus causing greater losses of soluble nutrients, and may is at the ‘milky’ stage.
also encourage the growth of moulds.  If extremes are considered, then it is possible to
Mechanical damage produce hay of excellent quality with a digestible
crude protein content of 115 g/kg DM and an
Excessive mechanical handling is liable to cause a ME value in excess of 10 MJ/kg.
loss of this leafy material, and since the leaves at the
hay stage are richer in digestible nutrients than are Changes during storage
the stems, the resultant hay may be of low feeding The chemical changes and losses associated with
value. Leaf loss during haymaking is particularly haymaking do not completely cease when hay is
likely to occur with legumes such as lucerne. stored in the stack or barn. The stored crop may
 Baling the crop in the field at a moisture content contain 100–300 g/kg moisture.
of 300–400g/kg, and subsequent drying by  At the higher moisture levels, chemical changes
artificial ventilation, will reduce mechanical brought about by the action of plant enzymes and
losses considerably. microorganisms are likely to occur.
 Respiration ceases at about 40°C, but the action
of thermophilic bacteria may go on up to about
72°C.
 Above this temperature, chemical oxidation can
cause further heating. The heat tends to
accumulate in hay stored in bulk, and eventually
combustion may occur. Heat can have an
adverse effect on the proteins of hay. New
linkages are formed within and between peptide
chains. Some of these linkages are resistant to
hydrolysis by proteases, thereby reducing the
solubility and digestibility of the proteins.
Susceptibility of proteins to heat damage is
greatly enhanced in the presence of sugars, the
damage being done by Maillard-type reactions.
Temperature has an important effect on the
reaction rate, which is 9000 times faster at 70°C
than at 10°C.
 The amino acid lysine is particularly susceptible
to reactions of this type. The products are
colourless at first, but eventually they turn
brown; the dark brown colour of overheated hays
and other foods can be attributed mainly to
Maillard reactions. Losses of carotene during
storage depend to a large extent on the
temperature.
 Below 5°C little or no loss is likely to occur,
whereas in warm weather losses may be
considerable. The changes that take place during
storage increase the proportion of cell wall
constituents and reduce nutritive value.
Overall losses
Happen under poor weather conditions. Losses of
nutrients were measured between harvesting and
feeding.
Hay preservatives
The main objective in using hay preservatives is to
allow hay to be stored at moisture levels that, in the
absence of the preservative, would result in severe
deterioration through moulding.
 The chemical preservatives tested have included
propionic acid and its less volatile derivative
ammonium bispropionate.
 In the laboratory, propionic acid applied at a
rate of 10 g/kg water (i.e. 3 kg/t of forage with a
moisture content of 300 g/kg) will prevent
moulding and preserve the hay.
 In the field, it is difficult to apply the
preservative uniformly, and a higher application
rate of 12 kg propionic acid (in buffered form)
per tonne of forage with 300 g/kg of moisture
is recommended. Hays with moisture contents as
high as 400–500 g/kg can be stored satisfactorily.
 Biological additives such as lactic acid
producing bacteria and enzyme preparations, as
used for silage have also been used for hay. The
bacterial additives need a supply of sugars and so
should be used for early-cut (i.e. less fibrous)
hays.
 Anhydrous ammonia and urea, which are used
to improve the nutritive value of straw have also
been used to preserve hay.
 Anhydrous ammonia injected into plastic-
covered stacks of bales of moist hay has
increased its stability, under aerobic and
anaerobic conditions, and has improved the
nutritional value of the hay (but with some
danger of the formation of toxins; see below).
20.2 ARTIFICIALLY DRIED FORAGES
The process of artificial drying is a very efficient,
though expensive, method of conserving forage
crops.
 The drying is brought about by passing the
herbage rapidly through a rotating drum, where it
meets hot gases at a temperature of about 800
°C. The final product usually contains about 50–
100 g/kg of moisture.
 After drying, the forage is generally hammer
milled and passed through a rotary die press to
form pellets. Coarser products may be made by
passing chopped material through a die press to
form cobs or through a piston-type machine to
form wafers.
Nutritive value
Dry matter losses from mechanical handling and
drying (artificial drying) are together unlikely to
exceed 10 per cent, and the nutritive value of the
dried product is therefore close to that of the fresh
crop.
 Dried grass to contain 200 g protein,130 g sugars
and 280 g acid-detergent fibre per kilogram of
dry matter, and 10.2 MJ metabolisable energy per
kilogram of dry matter.
 Dried lucerne had a similar value for protein but
contained less sugar (5 g/kg DM) and more ADF
(360 g/kg DM).
 For horses, dried lucerne contains 9.5–10.0
MJDE/kg DM. High-temperature drying may
reduce the digestibility of forage proteins, but it
has the advantage of increasing the proportion of
protein that escapes rumen fermentation to about
0.4 (i.e. rumen protein degradability
0.6). With regard
to minor nutrients, the carotene content of grass
meal is quoted in the above analytical data as 57
mg/kg DM, but high-quality dried grass could
contain as much as 150 mg/kg.
 During storage under ordinary commercial
conditions for 6 months, dried forage exposed to
light and air can lose as much as half its carotene
by oxidation. Dried forages may therefore be
stored under refrigeration or inert gases to
conserve carotene (and also vitamin E and the
plant pigment xanthophyll). Because irradiation of
sterols cannot take place during the rapid drying
process, the vitamin D content of dried forage will be
very low. To convert 4–5 tonnes of fresh grass to 1
tonne of dried material requires about 300 l of oil, and
so although dried forages could be regarded as
excellent feeds for ruminants, the high cost of
preparing them restricts their use to speciality feeds
for non-ruminants
 Dried lucerne is used for poultry as a source of
vitamins and also to provide xanthophyll as an
egg-yolk colourant.
20.3 Straws and Related By-Products
Straws
- consist of the stems and leaves of plants after the
removal of the ripe seeds by threshing, and are
produced from most cereal crops and from some
legumes.
Chaff
- consists of the husk or glumes of the seed, which
are separated from the grain during threshing.
- A by-product similar in composition to straw is
sugarcane bagasse. All the straws and related
by-products are extremely fibrous, most have a
high content of lignin, and all are of low nutritive
value (not recommended for ruminants).
- In many tropical and subtropical countries that
cannot afford to use land for forage production,
straw is the essential basal food for ruminant
livestock.
- Maize, wheat and rice crops are the main
sources of world straw supplies When oats were
grown for horses, oat straw was preferred for
animal feeding, but the decline in the area of this
crop has made its straw less important.
Barley and oat straw
The composition of both barley and oat straw may
vary, although this is influenced more by the stage of
maturity of the crop at harvesting and environment
than by the cultivar grown.
- The crude protein content of the dry matter
of both straws is low, usually in the range
20–50 g/kg, with the higher values obtained
in crops grown under cold and wet
conditions where they do not mature
completely.
- The rumen degradability of the protein is
relatively low (0.4), and of the undegradable
protein much is likely to be indigestible.
- The major component of the dry matter is the
fibre, which contains a relatively high
proportion of lignin. The dry matter of
barley straw consists of about 400–450 g/kg
of cellulose, 300–500 g/kg of hemicellulose
and 80–120 g/kg of lignin. The digestibility
of the organic matter of these straws rarely
exceeds 0.5 and the metabolisable energy
value is about 7 MJ/kg DM.
- Of the ash fractions, silica is the main
component and straws generally are poor
sources of essential mineral elements.
- Another major disadvantage is the low
intake obtained when they are given to
ruminant animals. Whereas a 650 kg cow
will consume up to 12 kg of medium-quality
hay, it will eat only about 9 kg of straw.
Improvements in both digestibility and
 intake can be obtained by the addition of
nitrogen in the form of protein or urea.
Maize straw
Maize straw, or corn stover, has a higher nutrient
content and is more digestible than most other straws.
It has a crude protein content of about 60 g/kg DM
and a metabolisable energy value of about 9 MJ/kg
DM.
Rice straw
Straw is used as a food for farm animals (in Asia). Its
protein content and metabolisable energy value are
similar to those of spring barley straw. It has an
exceptionally high ash content, about 170 g/kg DM,
which consists mainly of silica. The lignin content
of this straw, about 60–70 g/kg DM is, however,
lower than that of other cereal straws. In contrast to
other straws, the stems are more digestible than the
leaves.
Wheat and rye straws
Wheat and rye straws are considered to be lower in
nutritional value than barley straw. However, the
digestibility of most cereal straws can be markedly
improved with alkali treatment.
Legume straws
The straws of beans and peas are richer in protein,
calcium and magnesium than the cereal straws and,
if properly harvested, are useful roughage foods for
ruminant animals.
Alkali treatment of straws and other forages
When straw is exposed to an alkali, the ester linkages
between lignin and the cell wall polysaccharides,
cellulose and hemicelluloses, are hydrolysed,
thereby causing the carbohydrates to become more
available to the microorganisms in the rumen.
 In the process currently used, chopped or milled
straw is sprayed in a mixer with a small volume
of concentrated sodium hydroxide (typically
170 l/t of straw of a solution of 300 g/l of NaOH,
supplying 50 kg NaOH).The product is not
washed and the alkali forms sodium carbonate,
which gives the product a pH of 10–11.This
process gives a product that may be mixed with
other foods and may also be pelleted.
 An alternative alkali to sodium hydroxide is
ammonia, which may be applied to straw in the
anhydrous form or as a concentrated solution. It
reacts slowly with the straw. The ammonia is
added at 30–35 kg/t of straw, and when the stack
is exposed to the air about two-thirds of this is
lost by volatilisation.
 The remainder is bound to the straw and raises its
crude protein content by about 50 g/kg. In
addition to this advantage over sodium
hydroxide, ammonia does not leave a residue of
sodium (which increases the water intake of
animals).
 Both sodium hydroxide and ammonia have been
used on a wide range of low quality forages,
including straws, husks and hays.
 In addition to improving digestibility, the alkali
treatments caused increases in intake. A
danger arising from ammonia treatment is that it
may cause the production of toxic imidazoles,
which arise from reactions between ammonia and
sugars. Forages containing more sugars than do
straws, such as hays, are more likely to form
imidazoles, and their production is encouraged
by high temperatures.
 The toxins cause a form of dementia, which in
cattle is sometimes called ‘bovine bonkers’. A
chemical for treatment of forages that is easier to
handle, and often cheaper, than ammonia is urea.
When exposed to the enzyme urease, urea is
hydrolysed to yield ammonia: NH2—CO—NH2
H2OS2NH3
CO2
 Straw normally carries bacteria that secrete the
necessary urease; it is important that the straw
should be wet enough (about 300 g water per
kilogram) to allow the hydrolysis to take place.
After the application of urea, the straw is sealed
in the same way as for treatment with ammonia.
Urea ammoniation of straw has proved
reasonably effective in improving its nutritive
value but is not as consistently effective as
ammonia or sodium hydroxide.
 Urea can also be used simply as a supplement to these methods is consistently effective, but
straw (i.e. be added at the time of feeding). month the first ensures that straw and supplement
beforehand to generate ammonia. Both of these are consumed together.
treatments, when applied separately (columns 2  The second type of supplement required for
and 3 versus column 1), improved intake and straw is one that provides the animal with
digestibility, and reduced the weight loss of the additional protein that is not degraded in the
sheep, but the double treatment (column 4) gave rumen.
the best results, possibly because the urea- - This often stimulates intake and ensures a
ammoniated straw (column 3) did not maintain a proper balance between the protein and
sufficient concentration of ammonia in the energy supplied to the animal’s tissues.
rumen. In addition to treating straw and hay, - However, supplements of this second type,
alkalis may be applied to whole crop cereal which are often based on specially treated
forages. vegetable protein sources, are in limited
supply and expensive and therefore are
unsuitable for widespread use in developing
countries.
- In those countries, there is now much interest
in supplementing straw with locally
available materials, especially forages from
protein-rich leguminous shrubs such as
Leucaena leucocephala and Gliricidia
 Ammonia or sodium hydroxide raises the
sepium. These are valuable as sources of
digestibility of the straw in the crop and also
minerals and vitamins, but they are less
acts as a preservative by preventing mould
effective as sources of digestible
growth. Other chemicals that have been used
undegradable protein.
effectively to improve the digestibility of straw
include alkaline hydrogen peroxide and mineral
acids, but these are probably too expensive for
practical use.
Supplementation of straws
 The first type of supplement required for straw
is one that provides adequate supplies of
nutrients for the rumen microorganisms, the
critical nutrients being nitrogen and sulphur,and
perhaps phosphorus,sodium and cobalt.
- In the case of the nitrogen supplement, the
aim is to provide a reasonably constant
rumen ammonia concentration; if the
nitrogen is in a soluble and rapidly
degradable form, such as urea, the
supplement needs to be taken in frequently,
in small quantities.
- Supplementary nutrients can be supplied
as a solution sprayed on to the straw;
alternatively, they may be added to a small
amount of concentrate food or offered to
animals as feed blocks or licks. None of