Agriculture : News
DATE: May 01, 2010
HARDIN COUNTY COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE
201 Peterson Drive
Elizabethtown, Kentucky 42701-9370
BY: Doug Shepherd
County Extension Agent for Agriculture and Natural Resources
Haymaking Time:
Hay making season has already started for some this spring, surprisingly early. If it's wet when you start, you may want to consider inoculants or preservatives to get hay made
without spoiling. But stay tuned.
When baling hay a little too wet to store well, two types of additives can help – hay inoculants and hay preservatives. Legitimate hay inoculants contain bacteria and sometimes
ingredients like yeast and enzymes that reduce growth of microorganisms that cause hay to mold and spoil. Make sure to use hay inoculants, not silage inoculants that rarely work on hay.
Inoculants work best when baling hay at the highest possible moisture for safe storage without additives. But since windrows have uneven moisture and our estimates of moisture aren't always perfect, inoculants often protect against small errors and allow you to bale hay that is 3 to 5 points higher in moisture than would normally store safely. But no higher! All inoculants tested in University controlled studies failed frequently when the moisture of hay was over 25 percent.
Tests show that the only products that permit consistent, reliable, safe baling of hay that is definitely too wet to bale are organic acids like propionic and acetic acid. Although these acids are more expensive than inoculants, when applied uniformly at correct rates to work properly, they do work. Acid-treated hay still will heat some and become discolored, but most feed value will remain protected. Also, be sure to use the buffered forms of these acids to reduce the corrosion and odors that come from straight acids. If rain often affects your hay making plans, hay inoculants and preservatives might be worth looking into.
Last year was a challenging year for even our experienced hay producers relative to baling and storage moisture. We experienced several hay fires across the state, along with lower quality as a result of excessive heating caused by baling at higher than safe moisture.
When the internal temperature of hay rises above 130 degrees Fahrenheit, problems arise that will initially lead to lower quality and possibly spontaneous combustion. All hay baled above 15% moisture and above will show some increase in temperature for the first couple weeks after baling. This is referred to as “sweat”. It will usually peak at 125 to 130 degrees F in the first two weeks after baling with minimum risk of combustion or quality loss. When moisture is too high and temperatures continue to rise, problems can occur.
Johne’s and the importance of clean water troughs:
Clean drinking water is important to maintaining animal health and productivity. Research suggests that detection of pathogens in livestock drinking troughs on a farm is correlated
with fecal shedding of the same pathogen in the herd. Many organisms, like Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP), the causative agent of Johne’s disease prefer to live in association with other organisms on surfaces like those found on the inside of troughs.
The studies described in the following Natural Resources Research Update showed that MAP readily attaches to the sides of trough materials. So cleaning drinking water troughs on a routine basis and addition of 2ppm chlorine weekly should reduce the build up of biofilms on the inside of the trough. These simple practices should aid in maintaining a pathogen-free water source for livestock.
The continued global increase in the number of cases of Johne’s disease among dairy cattle suggests that there remain hidden sources of contamination in the farm environment where susceptible animals may be routinely exposed to MAP, the causative agent of the disease. Livestock watering troughs are frequented by all animals on a farm, they provide a moist, nutrient rich environment for bacterial survival and the trough basin provides a surface for bacterial adhesion (i.e., biofilm formation). MAP has been shown to have a very hydrophic cell wall structure which increases its propensity for biofilm formation. A study evaluated the ability of MAP to form mixed-community biofilms on the four most commonly used watering trough materials (concrete, plastic, stainless steel and galvanized steel), to persist amid the trough water microbial flora and to become incorporated into an established biofilm on the same trough materials. High concentrations of MAP were detected in biofilms on all trough materials within three days of inoculation into trough water and it survived in the biofilms for over 149 days! Trough material composition influenced the survival of MAP with the lowest survival exhibited on stainless steel, followed by plastic, galvanized steel and concrete.
To evaluate the effect of chlorine disinfection on survival of MAP in the trough biofilms, 2ppm chlorine was added to trough water on a weekly basis. Chlorination was found to
reduce survival of the organism on stainless and galvanized steel trough materials, but not on concrete or plastic materials. Chlorination may have been effected by higher pH in tanks with concrete trough materials and lower total and free chlorine availability in tanks with plastic trough materials.
Control of pathogens such as MAP in livestock drinking water sources may serve as a critical control point for slowing spread of the disease. Optimization of disinfection protocols and elimination of biofilms on trough surfaces should reduce persistence of MAP in trough waters. To inhibit spread of this organism and exposure of susceptible animals to MAP on infected farms, best management practices aimed at maintaining biofilm-free trough surfaces should be included in any Johne’s control plan.
Educational programs of the Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service serve all people regardless of race, color, sex, age, religion, national origin, or disability.
Website Design