Roughages have great importance in the diet of dairy cattles. 50- 50% part of dairy cattle rations consists of roughages. It is an indispensable element for roughages, which have such high proportion, to be quality in every part of ration in order to achieve such a high milk production. Roughages which are heavily used in Turkey in dairy cattle raising are fodder, alfalafa, vetch and corn silage. The most appropriate harvesting time for Alfalfa is the time when the fields are flowering in the proportion of 1/10. At this time, harvesting height should be as 8 to 10 cm high from the ground. It should be faded 2 days long after being harvested in order to prevent the occurance of bulge in animals. It should be stored as baled after fading and drying process. Excessively dried alfalfa loses a large part its vitamin A content. Therefore, it is damaging to dry alfalfa excessively. However, alfalfa baled having high humidity can go bad. Therefore dry matter content of the baled alfalfa must be over 88%. It is greatly significant to use of alfalfa baled under these values as soon as possible. Another issue is related to alfalfa is its protein content. A large part of the protein content of alfalfa is in its leaves. In this context, it is important to prefer abundant leafy and fine-stemmed alfalfa.
