Increased awareness of ryegrass as a potential forage has occurred in the upper Midwest. Ryegrasses are excellent, high quality forage, establishing rapidly and producing good yield in the seeding year if cool (50 to 75°F) exist and adequate moist is available. Ryegrasses have low tolerance for water stress. Several ryegrass types exist and species within […]
Frost seeding legumes and grasses is common means to improve forage yield or change the species composition of a pasture. Frost seeding offers several potential advantages: the ability to establish forage in an undisturbed sod, a reduced need for labor and energy compared to conventional seeding methods, the ability to establish forages with minimum equipment investment, a shortened “non-grazing” period, and a means to maintain stands at productive levels with both grasses and legumes.
When harvesting baled hay, it’s not always easy to control weather-related losses, but storage loses should be more controllable. After all, a lot of time, energy and expense have gone into producing a high quality and high value baled product.
It’s early May, you’re looking at a rather marginal alfalfa stand, the haylage silo is nearly empty, and you generally use some corn silage in the dairy ration. Here are the options: What are the advantages and disadvantages of each option? With Option 1, you give-up all alfalfa production on the field for the current year […]
“Update on starch utilization by dairy cows” was presented by Randy Shaver, University of Wisconsin. Two-to fourfold increases in corn prices in recent years over historical trends have prompted many questions about the utilization of starch by dairy cows.
Quality of corn silage is determined by energy content and intake potential as well as content of protein and minerals. Methods used to evaluate corn silage quality include chemical methods such as fiber analysis, biological methods such as fermentation with ruminal microbes, and instrumental methods such as near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) which predicts nutrients rather than measuring them directly.
There continues to be a lot of interest in corn silage harvested with a self-propelled forage harvester (SPFH) equipped with an aftermarket processor having cross-grooved processing rolls set for 2- to 3-mm roll gap and greater roll speed differential than has typically been used (32% versus 21%). Also, the developer of this processor recommends that […]
Increasing starch or neutral detergent fiber (NDF) digestibility in whole-plant corn silage (WPCS) may increase lactation performance by dairy cows or reduce purchased feed costs for dairy farmers.
Introduction From 2006 to 2010, Wisconsin averaged 282,000 acres of harvested wheat (USDA-NASS, 2007-2011). After harvest some of these fields are planted with late summer alfalfa and a few more receive manure, but many sit fallow for the rest of the growing season. Fields that are tilled late summer to control weeds are left vulnerable […]
Late-summer/fall establishment of grass is often desired in the Midwest. Most farmers do not realize how much fall seeding date affects the yield of the grasses the next year. We seeded six forage grasses at several late summer dates at three sites in Wisconsin (River Falls, Arlington, and Lancaster) over three years. Seeding dates were […]
Hay producers working in humid environments are well-acquainted with the consequences of baling moist hays, which include heating, molding, losses of dry matter (DM) and nutritive value, and the possibility of spontaneous combustion.
When significant winter alfalfa stand damage occurs consider the following. The situations vary from low spots only in fields to significant portions of the fields.
