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Forage
Forage Extension Program
What
Forages do we deal with? Harvested forages such
as alfalfa hay and silage, improved pastures, and annual
crops for hay or pasture. Harvested forages are
critical to Montana's billion dollar livestock industry.
Most livestock operations in Montana rely on
rangelands - about 70% of our land area.
Depending on location, producers need a 2 to
4 month supply of hay to get through the winters in
the northern Great Plains.
Aside from long periods of snow cover, high-quality
forages are required to offset poor-quality roughages
available on range.
Winter feed is the largest cost on
ranching operations, and slight improvements
in forage production can significantly reduce costs.
Montana's
hay crop is valued at about $325 million annually.
Currently, there are 2.6 million acres of hay
production in Montana, and 57% of this acreage is dryland.
A typical use of alfalfa or mixed stands on dryland
ranches is to harvest a single cutting of hay, then
stockpile the forage regrowth for fall or winter grazing.
Alfalfa hay is produced on 1.7 million acres
- 790,000 acres irrigated and 910,100 acres on dryland.
Statewide, average alfalfa hay yields on dryland
are about 1.2 tons per acre, and 3.4 tons per acre under
irrigation. Over
90% of the Montana hay crop is fed on-site, but its
value per acre is higher than our other widely-grown
crops (Table
1). In
several areas of the state, many producers can routinely
harvest over 7 tons of alfalfa hay per acre, and there
is growing interest in alfalfa hay as a cash crop.
Table
1. Acreage,
production and value of the "million-acre crops in Montana
(1980 - 2000).
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