Wyoming producers win big at forage superbowl
Three Wyoming producers earned top honors at the World Forage Analysis Superbowl during the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wis. Oct. 1-5.
The Expo brings together the latest in dairy innovation and some of the best cattle in North America, drawing crowds of more than 65,000 people from nearly 100 different countries. This year was the 53rd anniversary of the event.
Alongside the world’s largest dairy-focused trade show, dairy seminars and world-class dairy cattle shows, the World Dairy Expo also hosts the World Forage Analysis Superbowl.
This year the event evaluated 336 entries from 17 different states in eight different categories, including baleage, commercial hay, dairy hay, grass hay, alfalfa haylage, mixed/grass haylage, standard corn silage and brown midrib (BMR) corn silage.
The top five finishers in each category were announced at the Mycogen Seeds Forage Superbowl Luncheon.
Three of the top five finishers in the commercial hay category were Wyoming producers. In fact, Rooster Ranch of Casper finished in first place, Hardrock Farms of Wheatland finished in second place and Bappe Farm of Riverton finished in fourth place.
Jason Gurierrez, owner of Rooster Ranch, says his 17-year-old son Nicholas is the reason they started competing at the World Forage Analysis Superbowl.
“I have a full-time job working as the development director for the town, so my son Nicholas, a junior at Natrona County High School, puts up our alfalfa hay,” said Jason Gurierrez, owner of Rooster Ranch. “Nicholas just decided he wanted to start competing and has been competing at the national level for three years.”
Jason notes Nicholas also competes in the Wyoming State Fair Hay Show and took fourth place in the young producer category this year.
“It’s impressive what Nicholas is doing at just 17 years old, but its also impressive Wyoming had three of the top five finishers in the commercial hay category,” Jason said. “Wyoming hay is very under utilized. At the World Forage Analysis Superbowl, hay is ranked on relative feed value (RFV) and relative feed quality (RFQ). Our hay had an RFV of 274 and an RFQ of 294 with an adjusted crude protein of 26 percent. Those are extremely high numbers. Producers couldn’t just feed that to normal beef cows.”
Hannah Bugas is the assistant editor for the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to roundup@wylr.net.
