is this good greenfeed?

[Ron]

I baled my cps wheat after it was hailed, my neighbor said because of the hail it would be junk and worth not much more than straw (his was hailed much worse). The first test results are 10.8-11.4% protein, 37-38.4% ADF, peas were 19.4%protein and 38%ADF. What does this mean? Do you want a high or low number in adf? any thoughts on $$$ value. I am a grain farmer who knows very little about forage quality so any help would be greeat. thanks

[cowman]

ADF is a measurement of the digestability of a feed. The higher the number the harder it is to digest. 38% is fairly high. Timothy hay is around 37%, straw around 44%, alphalpha around 32%. The protein content is good. You can find all this info at the "Ropin the Web" site under livestock/beef/nutrition. I baled up about 30 acres of CPS wheat for geenfeed and I paid $40/bale on a share basis. The main problem I have with this greenfeed is the rough awn on the wheat. Will a bale processer bust it up enough or will it have to be tub ground? I remember feeding some Harrington barley greenfeed years ago and I had all kinds of problems. The awn on this CPS wheat is really rough.

[Muttley]

This feed is more than likely o.k. The problem I think you might have is getting that awn to break up. I have had problems in the past with the mature head not breaking up in my processor. If it was cut green the cows don't seem to mind but mature heads still come through the machine pretty whole. Sometimes there is not enough to worry about the next bale is pretty bad.