Have you heard of this?

Talked to mom today. She told me something I hadn't heard of. Apparently a friend of hers was contacted right before harvest by the ag dept from K-State. They asked if she would take part in an experimental project.

Apparently they had her bale her wheat straw in round bales. They then bagged each one and added anhydrous ammonia. Mom couldn't remember how long they were supposed to stay like that or how much they added but the end result is nutritious "hay" for livestock feed. I guess now everyone around there has round baled straw to do the same.

I can't imagine that the ammonia does anything for the flavor or palatability of straw - I don't think cattle will eat it well.

Anyone heard this before? New one to me!

Same idea as adding urea to raise protien...I would guess.

NPN non-protein-nitrogen. When feed to a ruminant each pound of nitrogen has the potential to replace/become 6 pounds of protein. Animal has to have enough roughage in their diet for the rumen to produce the protein. I almost tubed a nutrition final over that one, did the ration and did a back check the the minerals & nutrition output weight was greater than the input poundage, only after I noticed the NPN did I figure out what was happening.

Local dairyman has been gassing rd bales of low quality especially rained on Coastal for 20-25 yrs. He stated that it increased protein & palletability(sp). He puts about 120-150 rd bales under a plastic tarp pulls anhydrous tank next to stack and runs hose under tent. Certain amt of #s of anhydrous per estimated ton of hay. Cows love it.

Hmmmm. Got my gears turning. Hay is gonna be spendy and I have access to lots of straw. HATE the idea of playing with andhydrous though.

Sounds like something Billy Sol Estes would do.

I have done it many times it is not hard to do. Just make two rows of round bales. I usually did twenty bales at a time. Dig a shallow trench on each side and the ends of the bales. Lay a sheet of plastic over the bales pull it tight and bury the edge in the trench. On one end in the middle stick your anhydrous hose under the plastic. Try to push it as close to the middle as you can. Cover it and the edge of the plastic with dirt. Open the valve on the anhydrous. I usually left it open for a few minutes. Then just pulled it out from under the plastic. One person pulling and another keeping the dirt on the plastic. If you don't need to return the tank just leave the hose there until you open the plastic in a few days toa week. You usually loose very little of the gas. I would then let them set for a week. When you would open the plastic there would be very little anhydrous smell. The cattle would really eat it. Just make sure they have plenty of water. They need a larger amount when eating the treated hay/straw.

Naw he was into fake cotton and having people killed.

They were doing that in the mid 70's when I was in Ag school.

The straw provides the basic carbon structure the ruminant needs. The added N gives the animals digestive system all it needs to convert it to energy and protein.

This only works in Ruminants because of the way their digestive system is designed.

It has been so danged long that I forget exactly how it works, but they were also feeding them pelleted newspaper, same principal.

Gene

Would that work on round bales of corn stalks? Harold

Lots of farmers do this to cornsilage.They have an applicater on the blower with a rope trip and spry it on the silage while filling the silo.Really ups the protein but it seems to eat up silo unloaders. When filling the blower band will turn white with frost.I myself do not care for the strong smell while unloading.

Well there you go boys. You learn something new everyday. I guess the folks that have been around a while may just put this into play in a year like this. Even if you have hay around here it is of very poor quality. I'm most impressed to hear that the cattle will eat it.

Around here cattle feeders would chop corn silage and add nh3 at the same time. Run the nh3 through a cold flow kit and inject into the chopper.
Another added liquid urea at the silage blower.
Another made a H shaped boom and pulled each silage truck under boom and drizzled on top of load.

Googled and now know who Billy Sol Estes is...

Aaron

Never heard of it.

The ammonia will also inhibit mold growth. There have been some testing done to try to use it as a preservative instead of prop acid.

Billy Sol did the same thing, instead of straw it was cotton burs and the trash from the cotton Gins he added the anhydrous ammonia to. That wasn't all Billy Sol did by a long shot.
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read the link , and learn ,../ also you tube burning down the house

Years ago I used help a fellow who rented farm down the road from me put up corn silage all the time with anhydrous applicator in the blower pipe,but you had to turn of supply valve at pipe just before last bit silage was out of wagon,other wise air around blower got a little heavy around blower without a little dab of feed to help purge blower pipe.Scott

JD, did you do this to corn stalks or wheat straw or other? How did you determine how many pounds of anhydrous you were applying? Why did you only do 20 bales at a time? Was it because of the particular length of the plastic? Could you have set up multiple 20 bales stacks and used the same anhydrous wagon to treat each stack?

copied this from the internet.

Ammoniating Hay Could Pay
Everyone knows that hay is at a premium but the hay you get is certainly not premium and this why I have had a few questions about ammoniating hay. Treating low quality hay with anhydrous ammonia improves hay quality and value by several means.
1. Ammoniating low quality hay increases digestibility by breaking down hay’s fibrous parts,
2. Ammoniated hay has increased animal intake 15% to 25% which means they do like it,
3. Anhydrous ammonia adds non-protein nitrogen which can be converted by rumen bacteria to protein as ammoniating hay increases crude protein,
4. There is an increase in hay protein and energy which along with increased intake means 35% to 45% increase in energy and protein consumption,
5. Anhydrous ammonia will preserve forage quality,
6. Ammoniating hay increases animal performance.
Ammoniating hay is simply done by covering the bales with black plastic and sealing the edges real good with soil, gravel or even tires. Once covered and sealed, apply the ammonia through hoses under the plastic. The ideal amount is 3% or about 60 lbs of ammonia per ton of hay. Your tank needs to have an accurate gauge so that you don’t over-apply. Apply the ammonia slowly, 1 to 5 minutes per ton, usually works. Keep the bales covered for 15 to 45 days depending on outside temperatures (59 to 86 degrees takes 1 to 4 weeks). When you are ready to feed uncover the bales for 3 days or more before feeding to allow any residual ammonia to escape.
Ammonia is harder to find now but is still available. The cost will knock you over till you understand that it is still the cheapest source of nitrogen. Always, always exercise extreme caution when use anhydrous ammonia because it can injure or even kill you.

More info from internet.

.Home > HAY > Ammoniation Advice
Ammoniation Advice
Weigh pros and costs before treating low-quality forages.

Aug. 1, 2008 Kindra Gordon
EMAILinShare..As the livestock industry adjusts to higher feed costs, alternatives such as ammoniating low-quality forages may be worth considering this fall. Treating wheat, barley or oat straw, cornstalks or very mature, low-quality grass hay with anhydrous ammonia can boost crude protein levels to 8-9%, increase digestibility 10-30% and improve livestock intake of those feeds by 15-20%. The caveat in deciding.More About:Managing Forages In Drought.
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.As the livestock industry adjusts to higher feed costs, alternatives such as ammoniating low-quality forages may be worth considering this fall.

Treating wheat, barley or oat straw, cornstalks or very mature, low-quality grass hay with anhydrous ammonia can boost crude protein levels to 8-9%, increase digestibility 10-30% and improve livestock intake of those feeds by 15-20%.

The caveat in deciding whether or not to ammoniate low-quality forages this year hinges on anhydrous ammonia prices. “The dramatic run-up in prices for anhydrous ammonia over the past year makes the economics of ammoniation more challenging,” says North Dakota State University extension beef specialist Greg Lardy. “I think producers will really have to look at this on a case-by-case basis.”

But, given the high cost of most feeds this fall, Twig Marston, district director of the University of Nebras-ka's Northeast Research and Exten-sion Center at Norfolk, believes there are opportunities where ammoniating may be economical, even with the increased cost of anhydrous. How-ever, like Lardy, he says producers need to set up a budget to help determine if ammoniating forages pencils out.

Lardy gives this example for calculating costs:

Estimated costs to treat 1 ton of forage are $25.50-30 for anhydrous ammonia (based on $850-1,000/ton of ammonia), and $5.43-9.05 for plastic ($181 for 6-millimeter black and white plastic, 40 × 100'), for a total of $30.93-39.05/ton.

If wheat straw costs $45-50/ton, the total cost of ammoniated wheat straw in this example would be $75.93-89.05/ton.

To help make ammoniating more cost-effective, reduce the amount of anhydrous applied, Marston suggests. The process normally takes 3% anhydrous ammonia (about 60 lbs/ton of dry forage) to get the full chemical reaction on feed intake and digestibility. Producers might want to apply only 2-2.5% anhydrous to cut costs and still get 80-90% of the desired results on the forage, he says.

Lardy and Marston say producers should also consider:

Straw costs. Specifically, Lardy says, “You need to have a cost-effective source of straw or crop residue to make this work. If you are not in an area where these are available, it probably isn't going to make sense to pay somebody to truck in straw and anhydrous from long distance in order to ammoniate it. In that situation, it may be better to look at other alternatives, such as transporting higher-quality feeds, having somebody custom-feed your cows or haul your cows to cornstalks.”

Safety. “Safety has to come first with this chemical. It is extremely hazardous,” Lardy says. “Having the right safety equipment and taking the proper precautions will prevent accidents.”

Marston adds, “If you cannot handle the bale stacking, plastic covering, and/or the anhydrous ammonia application and storage, then consider some other alternative to improve forage quality.”

How you'll feed it. The experts agree that ammoniated forage works best for wintering gestating cows up to 50 days prior to calving. But, Marston says, “If you start a winter feeding program with ammoniated forage and switch midseason, cattle do not seem to want to go back to the ammoniated forages.”

He has also found that young cattle can be finicky and may not eat ammoniated forage. Mixing it with other forages can improve acceptance.

As a final tip, ammoniated feeds should be analyzed before they're fed to determine actual nutrient content. And phosphorus, trace minerals and vitamin A should be added to the diet whenever ammoniated residues are fed.

North Dakota State University has an updated extension bulletin detailing the process of ammoniating low-quality forages and calculating the economics. View it at http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/disaster/drought/ammo niationoflowquality.html.
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