Rain Affecting Hay Quality In Manitoba

Frequent rains over the growing season have brought some challenges to haying operations in Manitoba.

 

Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association extension support John McGregor says the precipitation slowed first and second cuts of hay in some cases, as the fields were too wet for a while. McGregor talks about how the rain has affected the quality of hay for beef cattle.

 

"Because the rains have been happening the way they have, a lot of the hay has remained standing in the field, and therefore when they take it off the quality will be as mature hay," he says. "That'll mean it'll have higher fibre, a little bit lower protein, and the energy will be down a bit. Not very much of the hay went down as swathed and got rained on, which, when it gets rained on, then we see the hay really start to deteriorate as it gets moldy and loses a lot of the quality."

 

When it comes to alfalfa hay for dairy, McGregor says the first cut will have been fairly mature, so cows won't milk on very well on it.

 

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.