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Meeting the nutrient requirements of a very high-producing dairy cow (more than 130 pounds of milk per day) requires high-quality forages as a foundation of the ration. Corn silage is playing a more important role in most dairy rations because of its high-energy content, high yield per acre and the consistency of feed quality coming out of the silo.
It’s hard to imagine winter is coming when fall is just beginning. However, preparing for the winter survival of your alfalfa stand begins now. Your late summer and fall alfalfa management strategy can have a large impact on spring regrowth and next year’s yield potential.
Recently I asked a South Dakota alfalfa grower what he enjoyed most about growing alfalfa. His response was simple, “The best part of growing alfalfa is when I’ve finished harvesting and know I captured a high-quality crop of alfalfa.”
Imagine cutting next year’s first crop of alfalfa and seeing a perfect stand of deep green, healthy alfalfa flowing through your haybine. Your neighbor says it’s the best stand of alfalfa he’s ever seen. It’s obvious that your silo will not hold your entire alfalfa crop.
Good forage crops place a high demand for potassium on the soil’s nutrient supplying power. Potassium is critical for growing high-yield, high-quality alfalfa, helping maximize animal performance and profitability.
Dairy producers and nutritionists understand the value of highly digestible forages and their importance in helping drive high milk production in dairy cows.
With corn silage becoming more important to dairy rations and the dairy farm enterprise, it is critical to maximize energy from this crop. Highly digestible brown midrib (BMR) corn silage offers one tool to help maximize milk production on the dairy farm.
Historically, measuring alfalfa yield has been a labor-intensive process. University researchers used to measure alfalfa yield by planting and growing alfalfa varieties in small plots.
Many livestock and dairy producers harvest high-moisture corn (HMC) to eliminate high grain drying costs and produce excellent feed for ruminant animals. HMC is harvested using a combine shortly after black-layer formation and then ground to reduce the size of the kernel particles and fermented in a silo or silage bag.
Join the club. You are not alone in your disdain for alfalfa diseases and insects. Invisible disease organisms sit in waiting until the perfect environment exists to indiscriminately infect your alfalfa plants.
Insects seem to appear out of nowhere and then reproduce faster than the speed of light to aggressively feed on your crop. Both disease and insect damage can lead to significant loss of production, reduced forage quality and early stand loss.
Bacteria, fungi and other very small life forms live all around us but are invisible to the naked eye. These microbes can be found virtually everywhere, including on plants, in soil and in the forage we put into silos. Microbiologists’ understanding of the powerful role of these microorganisms in silage fermentation is growing every day.
