PONDEROSA HAY
Ponderosa Partnership LLC has a unique growing area in the San Luis Valley in Colorado with a rich, dark soil, which is excellent for forage production. We have tested our hay with animals from various areas and all reports are that the animals are attracted to our hay first.
We offer a wide variety of top quality hay and straw for sale including:
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Dairy Alfalfa – high RFV
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Grass Alfalfa – grass and alfalfa mix
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Oat Hay – extremely nutritious: high in protein and energy content. Ours is good quality and contains many fully intact seed heads
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Certified Barley Straw
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Feed Oats
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Forage
We have more than 700 acres of hayfields in production in the San Luis Valley near Center, Colorado at an elevation over 7,625 feet. With more than 30 years in the hay business, Ponderosa Partnership is able to provide cattle and dairy operations with a dependable supply of high quality hay and forage. (We have also provided feed for exotic animal ranches to feed critters such as elephants and alligators, too.) We perform quality tests on our hay to determine the nutritional value of our products, and to guarantee a high RFV for dairies.
HAYING OPERATIONS
Good hay production is all about baling when the time is perfect. We have the right equipment and personnel to minimize the baling time so that the majority of our hay is baled during the optimal window. We cut our forage crops when the moisture and humidity levels are best in our arid climate to ensure high quality hay.
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Bale size: 4x4x8 and 3x3
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Swathing cycles: 3
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Storage: storage varies on locations we do have some under hay sheds.
BUY LIVESTOCK FEED
Buying direct from the grower saves money and makes it easy to specify exactly what you are looking for. You can purchase from us in loads (we can split loads, too) or one bale at a time, depending on your needs. We can also deliver upon request.
All of our lots are quality tested at a reputable lab, but we don’t mind submitting samples for independent test, either. Nutritional values are available upon request.
CURRENT LOTS FOR SALE
Contact us for more information and pricing.
Alfalfa Guidlines
(for domestic livestock use and not more than 10% grass)
Grass Hay Guidlines
Hay Quality Designation’s physical descriptions:
Supreme: Very early maturity, pre-bloom, soft fine stemmed, extra leafy. Factors indicative of very high nutritive content. Hay is excellent color and free of damage.
Premium: Early maturity, i.e., pre-bloom in legumes and pre-head in grass hays, extra leafy and fine stemmed-factors indicative of a high nutritive content. Hay is green and free of damage.
Good: Early to average maturity, i.e., early to mid-bloom in legumes and early head in grass hays, leafy, fine to medium stemmed, free of damage other than nbsp; slight discoloration.
Fair: Late maturity, i.e., mid to late-bloom in legumes, head-in grass hays, moderate or below leaf content, and generally coarse stemmed. Hay may show light damage.
Utility: Hay in very late maturity, such as mature seed pods in legumes or mature head in grass hays, coarse stemmed. This category could include hay discounted due to excessive damage and heavy weed content or mold. Defects will be identified in market reports when using this category.
A typical hay test will analyze for moisture, protein, fiber and various minerals. Moisture is obviously the amount of water in the sample. Most hay samples run in the 10 to 15 percent moisture range.
The nutrient most people are concerned with is protein. Crude protein is estimated by measuring the amount of nitrogen in the sample and multiplying it by 6.25. This factor is used because most forage stem and leaf tissue proteins contain 16 percent nitrogen. Higher crude protein is usually better, but must be considered in the context of plant maturity, species, fertilizer rate, nitrate concentrations, etc.
Fiber analysis is the other major component of a hay test. In the laboratory, forage samples are boiled in either a neutral detergent or acid detergent solution. After boiling, some of the sample disappears (the digestible portions) and some remains (the indigestible portions). The residues are reported as Acid Detergent Fiber (ADF) and Neutral Detergent Fiber (NDF). NDF provides an estimate of forage intake while ADF is used to calculate estimated energy levels in the forage. These energy estimates are listed as Total Digestible Nutrients (TDN), Net Energy maintenance and Net Energy gain. Since both NDF and ADF results are residues, lower numbers indicate greater intake potential and higher energy levels. Just remember that for ADF and NDF, lower is better.