Hay Production

Hay sampling for nutrition testing.

Sample taking is by a drill powered hay bale bore that when inserted from the end of the hay bale perpendicular to the flakes takes a cross sampling of whatever is in that bale.
This type of bore sampler collects a far better representation of what is in a bale rather than the more common method of hand selecting a sample.
We take a sample from one bale from every wagon load that comes to the barn with each wagon load representing a different part of the field. This allows for an averaging of the entire field rather than a sampling from one bale being representative of only that bale's part of the hay field.

After about 15 bales the samples are dumped into a brown grocery bag, further samples mixed in and then sent to the hay testing service.

What that sample looks like is shown below.

This sample is a true cross section of many alfalfa bales. The different size stems reflect the larger main alfalfa plant stalk as well as smaller branches, and leaves as well. Taking samples this way will always make for lower test results than the reported test averages.

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