Forage Production and Management

Use a grazing stick to create a pasture inventory

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.

Corn silage harvest

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.

Growing successful late-summer and spring planted forage crops

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.

Maximizing Corn Silage Yield and Quality

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.

Prussic acid and nitrate toxicity in sorghums

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.

Cover crop considerations and management after corn silage

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?

Drought resources for livestock producers

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:

The flash drought of 2023: Ideas and resources

While the early part of the year was characterized by large amounts of precipitation, the May Wisconsin experienced this year was the 4th driest on record.  While some areas are receiving scattered amounts of precipitation this week, the speed with which the drought came on and led to the designation of “flash drought” for much of the state led UW-Madison State Climatologist Steve Vavrus to call this time “remarkable.”

Tower silo capacity spreadsheets

These spreadsheets calculate an estimate of the dry matter capacity when a top unloading and bottom unloading tower silo is filled and after removing some silage.