Accurately determining corn whole plant moisture is important when harvesting for corn silage. Harvesting corn for silage too early (high moisture content) or too late (low moisture content) can affect forage yield, quality and silage fermentation.
Weed suppression can be important during alfalfa establishment as weeds can reduce stand life, alfalfa biomass, and forage quality. To reduce these impacts producers commonly apply herbicides to establishing alfalfa.
Alfalfa stands are typically terminated by herbicides in Wisconsin. While many options are available, combinations of 2,4-D and glyphosate are most commonly used.
Garnering much recent interest by dairy producers and their nutritionists has been a new method of harvesting whole-plant corn for silage. The resultant product has been called corn shredlage by the developer of the process Shredlage™
Plant sugars are fermented by anaerobic bacteria to organic acids which reduce the pH of the plant material. This process preserves the crop during long-term storage.
Routine laboratory forage analysis of corn silage typically includes percent starch determination for the feed. Nutritionists utilize this information to partition Non-Fiber Carbohydrate (NFC) portions into % starch, % sugar and other NFC components to optimize production and animal health.
Research is developing new understanding of forage, fiber, and the animal’s ability to use them. We have also increased understanding of the genetics of alfalfa to allow improved variety selection methods and enhanced performance for the farmer. This paper will consider both topics. Growing Alfalfa/Grass Mixtures Generally dairymen have perceived grasses to be too high […]
Introduction Forage grasses are an important source of dry matter in dairy cattle diets. Agronomic practices associated with grass forage production however, can alter magnesium utilization by dairy cattle. Altered magnesium utilization induced when cattle graze lush forage grasses is referred to as grass tetany. Historic use of vocabulary directly associating the term grass tetany […]
Pasture and hay forage crops generally fall into four categories: The last category includes many perennials crops, such as rape, kale, comfrey, and all annual forage crops, such as sudangrass, sorghum, and various millets. None of these should be considered for sheep pasture other than in emergency situations. Warm season grasses are generally not recommended […]
Traditionally, the effect of heat damage within forages has focused on reduced bioavailability of crude protein (CP) to ruminant animals as a result of Maillard reactions. The products of these reactions are the result of complex, multi-step pathways.
Lactobacillus buchneri is a bacterial inoculant approved for use in grass silages, corn silage, legume silage and high moisture grains. Lactobacillus buchneri has been demonstrated to improve aerobic stability of silages by reducing the growth of yeasts.
Introduction Many dairy and heifer rearing operations are looking for increased feed production on a limited acreage for their operation. Planting fall grain rye and harvesting the crop as forage the following spring can increase forage yield per acre and reduce forage production costs. Double cropping fall grain rye following soybean or early corn silage […]
