Tools for Forage Sampling

Forage quality and forage testing has been the topic of several blog postings from several of our writers. This is just one of those topics that can’t be emphasized enough.  The one thing that has prompted me to write about tools for forage sampling is the fact that a horse owner in Granville County has inquired about getting her own hay sampling tool!  After borrowing one from the Cooperative Extension Center for quite a while, this person has decided to purchase one for the farm.  On a previous occasion, she had borrowed a hay bale probe that attached to a drill and taken the samples with relative ease.  That time, however, the cutting bit was broken on the drill- run hay probe and the only other one available was one that the operator just pushes into the bale.  It worked fine, but a push-type bale probe works better when there is some mass behind it to push it in.  They decided that a drill with the sampling tool is the way to go.  Now that the farm is getting a new load of hay about every three months and the farm operators want to know what they are feeding to their horses, they have decided to make the investment in their own forage probe.

I haven’t really heard much discussion about tools for testing forages for quality, so I though a few words on this topic might be appropriate.  Let’s list the types of tools used and their characteristics.  The most basic of forage testing tools is either the right or left hand.  Sometimes both hands are needed.  We can take what is called a grab sample of several bales in a cutting or load, put the collected composite sample into a large zip-lock bag and send that off for testing.  The lab will take the sample, grind it up, dry it down and conduct the other tests as desired.  The grinding step takes a lot more time due to the long stems and leaves. Caution must be used sampling bales that contain briers, Carolina horsenettle, or sandburs.

The next type I’ll mention is the push-in bale probe.   As the name suggests, this probe is designed to be pushed into bales using our own body weight and strength.  The bit must be sharp for best results.  When all works well, this type of probe does a great job with a little effort.  However, if the bit is not sharp, or the operator doesn’t have a lot of mass available to push the probe into bales, a little effort can become a lot, creating a pretty tiresome job.  The pieces of forage sampled are cut into short lengths, which the lab technician can grind and dry pretty quickly.

The third type is one that connects to a drill, preferably cordless.  This type of probe has a bit with small cutting teeth on the end that cuts the forage into those short lengths for the lab.  The effort of pushing the probe into the bale is less, and the drill is helping by turning the probe allowing the cutting bit to do its job.  Here is one word of caution when using this type of bale probe.  Be sure to have a drill that can handle heavy duty.  As the probe goes deeper into the bale, the more resistance it encounters.  That resistance slows the drill, so the operator must be careful to not overheat or burn out the drill.  The better the bale is formed, square or round, the more resistance felt while taking the sample.

Those are the three types of hay probes/sampling devices that I’m aware of.  All work well to take forage samples.  More consistent samples can be taken using one of the tools designed for taking forage samples.  The main key in getting a good forage test result is to be sure to take several sub-samples from multiple bales in a load or from a cutting.  Mix the sub-samples together and fill up a gallon storage bag to send to the lab.  Ideally, each field and each cutting from each field would be sampled, but getting a good composite sample from each cutting is more feasible for most operations.

Several places will test the forage, including the NCDA&CS, and other places such as Dairy-One.   For most of us, the NCDA &CS lab does a great job.  Sample analysis costs $10 per sample, and the horse owner knows just what nutrients are provided from forage and what will need to be supplemented. This is a case where a $10 investment can pay great dividends in cost savings by not overfeeding protein or energy to our horses.  A nutritionist’s job is made much easier by having good data to work with when figuring out what to feed. 

To sum up, this article is about getting a good sample of forage, which tools can be used to take samples, and why forage sampling is important.  Even if the most basic tools are used, we can still get a representative sample that provides good information to use in feeding horses.