Lamar Bomberger, left, President of the Pennsylvania Forage and Grassland Council; and Jessica Williamson, assistant professor of forage management at Penn State.
Ag Progress Days 2017 was held August 15-17. In 2018, it will run August 14-16 and again will be at Penn State’s Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center at Rock Springs, nine miles southwest of State College, Pennsylvania, research farms. Each year, it draws close to 500 exhibitors from 34 states and four Canadian provinces and tens of thousands of farmers.
Some of the finest hay produced in Pennsylvania in 2017 won blue ribbons at the Ag Progress Days Hay Show. Judging was based on both visual characteristics and forage quality analysis.
Judging was held the first day of the show. Once the judges were finished, guests looked at entries for leafiness and stuck their noses into any bale sample for a good hay smell.
These leafy, late-cutting alfalfa samples topped the Ag Progress Days Hay Show. Photo: Curt Harler
Grand championship ribbons went to two later cutting alfalfa samples. Dennis Newhard, Nazareth, showed a heat dried sample with a relative value of $217 per ton. His entry had an impressive 24.2 percent crude protein. It tested at 33.5 percent acid detergent fiber and 43.6 percent neutral detergent fiber. Also garnering honors was David Sollenberger of Williamsburg. His field-cured sample proved out to $204 per ton relative value. Its crude protein measured 23.4 percent. It tested at 40.2 percent acid detergent fiber and 54.3 percent neutral detergent fiber.
The show allows an individual producer or farm to enter cured (dry) long hay from any bales whether small square, large round or large square that have been cured. Rules require an exhibit to consist of a bale section 4 to 6 inches thick, 12 inches high and 18 inches wide. All samples entered in the Hay Show must be tied with wine.
Thin or moist samples got disqualified.
Samples from the Ag Progress Days hay show are being stored for exhibit in the Hay Show at the 2018 Pennsylvania Farm Show, unless the exhibitor objects. If you missed the Hay Show at Rock Springs, check out the winning entries in Harrisburg in January.
Entries at the Ag Progress Days Hay Show are free to all exhibitors who are members of the Pennsylvania Forage and Grassland Council. Others pay $10 per entry.
To join PFGC and be eligible for next year’s Hay Show, contact Terri Breon at 814-355-2467 for membership information.
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