Feeding Dairy Cows High Moisture Alfalfa Hay Preserved with Anhydrous Ammonia

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Abstract
Alfalfa hay was baled either at 32% moisture and treated with 1.87% anhydrous ammonia (dry weight) or at 19.5% moisture and left untreated and fed to dairy cows. Ammonia treatment prevented molding and heating in high moisture hay, improved in vitro cell wall digestion slightly, and increased crude protein content of hay from 18.8-23.8%. There were no differences between hay treatments for actual and fat-corrected milk, percentages of milk fat and protein and dry matter intake. Cows fed untreated or ammoniated hay produced 20.7 and 20.8 kg fat-corrected milk/day and consumed 11.7 and 11.4 kg hay dry matter daily. Increasing dietary ammonia intake did not influence urinary orotate, but it did elevate concentrations of orotate in milk. Alfalfa hay with 32% moisture can be preserved with anhydrous ammonia and fed to dairy cows with no detrimental effects on cow performance.