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Corn is a vital part of most rations in Canada and comes in many forms: corn silage, dry corn and high-moisture corn (including earlage or snaplage). This article will focus on high-moisture corn.
Selecting and planting high-quality alfalfa seed is a critical first step for establishing a healthy, productive stand that can last three to four years – or more. Choosing a variety that stems from high-performing genetics, is protected with a fungicide seed treatment and planted at the appropriate rate can lead to high yields and long stand life.
With a growing dairy industry comes the need for individual dairies to closely monitor their feed inventories to ensure enough feed is available. This can be a bit of a guessing game, and intakes will greatly influence the rate of consumption.
2017 will go down in the books for its unique rainfall pattern. As a whole, most farmers in Ontario experienced a wet spring. Come summer, the tap turned off in some areas, and the sink overflowed in others.
Starch digestibility has been a popular subject among nutritionists and dairy producers fueled by some companies claiming higher digestibility from softer-textured kernels compared to harder kernels from higher test-weight hybrids.
Kernel milkline (starch deposition) should drive the time to start harvesting corn silage, not plant dry matter. For some, this statement may be puzzling, as in the past using plant dry matter was a key tool for harvest timing.
Corn silage is an excellent source of high-yielding and consistent feed that some consider the most important crop for cows. This makes it important to understand how silage performance is affected by agronomic practices such as plant density.
For many of us, 2016 is a year that will not be forgotten for some time. This past growing year presented many drought condition challenges compared with 2015.
Molds damage silage quality, and some molds can lead to the development of mycotoxins that can make silage unhealthy for livestock consumption. Growers need to understand which molds are harmful and how to limit their development in crops.
Mycotoxins creep into many producer discussions with their nutritionists and veterinarians. They are very complex, and a lot is still unknown about them. Hopefully, this article will help shed some light on the source and potential implications of the various mycotoxins you could discover on your dairy operation.
