You’re busy: milking cows, managing employees, making hay. In our regular conversations with our team of editorial advisers, we learned they not only wanted a recap of dairy news, but they were seeking brief insights into how that news might impact their dairy business going forward.

“Family quarrels are bitter things. They don’t go according to any rules. They’re not like aches or wounds. They’re more like splits in the skin that won’t heal because there’s not enough material.”—F. Scott Fitzgerald

For years, we have talked about markets and their behavior. We study supply and demand features. We discuss exports and trade policy. We analyze chart patterns and talk about technical influences. But there remains one element of the market seldom mentioned. There is a particular group of people often left out of the conversation – speculators.

This time of year, when producers are filling silos, bunkers or bags, I often get calls wondering which gases are coming off the silage. During fermentation, many different gases are formed. For the most part, the formation of gas is completely normal.

Around the world, billions of pounds of corn are planted and grown for the purpose of feeding livestock. For many dairy farmers, corn (coming from both grain and silage) supplies a significant amount of calories in milk cow and heifer diets.

From growing, storing and feeding, silage is a big investment of time and money for producers, year after year. Up to 60 percent of the average farm’s expenses are feed-related.

Recently, on an online forum, someone asked how much nitrogen everyone was applying on their triticale fields to get an idea of what application rate to use.

Feeding a dairy cow’s rumen is as complicated and complex as feeding the world’s billions of people in a sustainable, efficient and environmentally friendly way.

Corn silage harvest is arguably the most critical time of the year for a dairy’s future productivity and profitability. In a period of a few weeks, nine to 14 months of feed inventory is created.

Advances in forage quality should translate into improved farm income. Forage quality is synonymous with improved fiber digestibility (NDFd).