For years, we have known that hays vary in forage quality based on maturity of the plant. Now, we are beginning to understand that forage quality can also be different based on the time of day that harvest occurs. The following is a review of the most recent findings.
Plants vary diurnally in concentrations of nonstructural carbohydrates.
We harvested in this manner three times, resulting in six hays. The hays were field dried, baled, and passed through a hydraulic bale processor prior to feeding. Experiments were conducted with sheep, goats, and cattle, using six animals in each case. During an adaptation phase, hays were offered alone as meals. Data were analyzed by multidimensional scaling and by traditional analyses.