The third Focus on Forage webinar in the 2024 series, Focus on Annual Forages, features discussions around annual forage crops for Wisconsin farms, the nutritive value of and strategies around feeding annual forages on dairy farms, the nitrogen demand of cereal forages, and nitrogen carryover and rate planning considerations for 2024.
The recordings from the second Focus on Forage webinar in the 2024 series, Focus on Alfalfa, feature Scott Newell, Dr. Kim Cassida, Dr. Mark Renz, and Dr. Emily Bick.
The recordings of the first Focus on Forage webinar in the 2024 series, Focus on Forage Insurance, featuring Pamela Stahlke and Dr. Paul Mitchell.
Alfalfa has an establishment-year yield issue. Corn has a runoff and soil erosion issue. But planting the two together could be a unique solution to mitigate both problems.
Managing forage inventory is a pivotal task on any grazing operation. A forage inventory involves monitoring how much forage is available at various points of the season, as well as projecting forage availability throughout the season to ensure the farm is on track to meet its production goals.
The August 23rd Badger Crop Connect session features discussions by two speakers. The first is Dr. Joe Lauer, Corn Agronomist, UW-Madison Professor and Extension Specialist. Joe Lauer shares timing, drydown, other corn silage related advice, and research results. The second speaker is Dr. Brian Luck, Biological Systems Engineer, UW-Madison Associate Professor, and Extension Specialist. Brian Luck shares information on silage harvest machinery setup, real time evaluation of kernel processing, and other potential technology to implement on a chopper.
Beef cow-calf producers are feeling the pinch of low pasture and hay yields due to drought conditions across the state. Corn silage is another feed source that can be used to help meet the herd’s nutritional needs.
The decision to utilize late-summer planted forage crops as a feed source may be necessary when in-season crop yields fail to meet expectations or opportunities exist in the current crop rotation. One should evaluate the decision to plant and harvest late-summer planted forage crops carefully.
Corn silage is unique compared to other multicut forage systems, such as alfalfa, as there is only one opportunity to harvest the crop annually. Therefore, farmers, agronomists, and agricultural professionals must dilligently monitor corn silage acres to identify the optimal harvest time to maximize forage yield and quality, as well as to ensure the proper moisture content for ensiling.
Sorghum plants such as sudangrass and sorghum-sudan hybrids are tropical summer annuals well adapted to drought conditions with leaves and stems with a waxy covers that limits water losses. They are widely grown for grazing, silage as well as green chop in areas that are too dry for corn.
Whether it’s reducing nitrates leached to groundwater, phosphorus to our water bodies or increasing soil organic matter and microbial biomass, the answer is generally yes. But in trying to integrate cover crops into a cropping system, what are the considerations–species selection, seeding, benefits and drawbacks–that need to be addressed along the way?
While some parts of the state have recently received some much-needed rain, forage yield has already been reduced and we don’t know what the rest of the growing season will bring. If you have not begun putting some mitigation plans and practices in place, now is the time to do so. Some of the tasks to be done include:
