Re: Hay?...before and after

[tetervin@bms.com]

I live in NJ also. If you want to learn about the nutrients in different kinds 
of hay, get Lon Lewis' book or Harold Hintz' book. Generally, timothy is 
supposed to have more protein than grass hay but it depends on the stage at 
which it was harvested. My guys leave over the stems if the timothy is not 
tender enough and this year was a bad year for hay so I'm cleaning up alot of 
hay stems. As far as spreading shavings, well, spreading manure on pasture is 
not a good thing to do unless it's rotted becuase you're going to be seeding 
the place with parasites too. I compost my manure and shavings and then people 
who have gardens come and take some it away. It would make sense though that 
the pH of the wood shavings would acidify the land it's spread on. Lime is 
the remedy, but why go to the expense if you can compost the manure instead.If 
you want straw, I may know someone who makes it for his dairy cows. Let me 
know.( He's in central NJ.) -Amy