Nutritional value of feedstock as a basis for good quality forage

The article deals with the issues of bulk forage (hay) harvesting, necessary for providing nutritious balanced feeding of cows with high and record productivity. It shows the dependence of the nutritional value of fresh yield of forage crops and herbage mixtures on the type of plants. We evaluated bulky forages considering the latest GOSTs. The purpose of the research is to conduct a comparative assessment of the qualitative indicators offresh yield and the study of nutrient losses in the process ofharvesting forage. The novelty of the research is in the analysis of the harvested forage, taking into account the herbage used and weather conditions. We performed the work in the NWDFGMRI located in the zone of unstable moisture in the Vologda Oblast (2019-2020). We determined the content of the main nutrients in the laboratory of forages chemical analysis according to the standard methods: the amount of crude protein - using the Kjeldahl method; crude fat - by the amount of skimmed residue using the Soxhlet method; crude fiber - using Hennenberg and Stomman method. We obtained such indicators as moisture, protein, metabolic energy, sugar, and feed units' content. We found that the water content in the researched forages was within normal range. According to the data of analyses, the content of crude protein, metabolic energy, feed units in hay, on average, was less than optimal values. The hay harvested in the Vologda Oblast is poor in sugar content. The greatest amount of sugar is contained in the hay of cereal-legume grasses. In the samples under study, the highest sugar-protein ratio was recorded in cereal hay - 0.98 : 1.0. The object and subject of the study are the samples of fresh yield, hay, which form the basis of the feed ration of animals in the farms of the Vologda Oblast. The studies were carried out in 20192020 in laboratory conditions in accordance with the methodological recommendations. Zoanalysis was carried out in accordance with GOST 23637-95, 23638-95, 1349.0-95, 4808-97, 13496.4-99, 55986-2014, 55452-2013.