The cost of feed is by far the main expense for a dairy operation, representing around half of the cost to produce milk on a dairy.

Lignin in corn silage and forage has been compared to the rebar in concrete, providing the structural integrity and strength to hold the road or driveway together. This added strength is great for your driveway, but added strength in forage fiber corresponds to limited digestion and energy potential per pound.

Forage quality is critical to a producer’s operation. The quality of forage – good or bad – will affect an operation’s bottom line.

Even when producers put up the right quality of feed for a class of cows, ensuring that all cows have enough feed is a goal that has a few components to consider.

The topic of silage density in storage has garnered a great deal of focus in the last few decades, but it remains a key opportunity area on many farms for its role in 1) minimizing storage losses and feed quality deterioration, 2) optimizing the footprint of stored feed and resources committed to feed storage, and 3) allowing for accurate inventory calculations and management.

Approaching Christmas in 2019, there were still fields yet to take off as high-moisture corn, snaplage or earlage – and even corn silage, if you can believe it.

Planning and managing forage inventory on the dairy can sometimes feel like playing Tetris. Like Tetris, we see things begin to pile up or disappear faster than our feed center is prepared for, with consequences more financially weighty than a fistful of quarters at the arcade.

Gallons of ink have been used and thousands of blog posts have featured information and voiced concerns about the quality of the 2019 crop.

Across North America, the 2019 corn silage crop was seriously compromised at all stages of growth and production.