Offering high-quality forage may not be the best trick to keep picky eaters from sorting.

"We thought cows would be more likely to sort against lower-quality hay," says Lou Armentano, dairy nutritionist at the University of Wisconsin. However, "our research shows that doesn't happen." In fact, forage quality had no effect on sorting behavior.

A better strategy to reduce sorting may be to moisten the ration with water or offer more medium-size particles - like the ones on the middle screen of the Penn State Particle Separator, Armentano says.

Offering high-quality forage may not be the best trick to keep picky eaters from sorting.

Most dairy producers don't have a drive-over scale to weigh forages harvested from their fields. However, in certain situations, it's handy to know the weight of the alfalfa haylage or corn silage in your wagons as they come from the field, says Daniel Wiersma, assistant station manager at the University of Wisconsin's Agricultural Research Station in Marshfield, Wisconsin, and Brian Holmes, Extension agricultural engineer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.