9 26 15 zone2

Dairy Star Saturday, September 26, 2015

S:6S:9

T:7T:10

B:7B:10

S:S:S:666S:S:S:S:S:S:9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999

T:T:777T:TTTTTTTTT:TTTTTTTTTTTT:T:TTTTTTTTT:T:TTTTTT:T:TTTTTTTTTTTTT:TTT:T:TT:TTTTTTTT:T:TTT:::::::::::::::::::::::1011010101010110101010101011010101010110101110101010101010101011010101010101010110101010101011001010111101010101011111101010010111101010110010000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

B:B:77B:BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB:BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB:BBBBB:::::::::::::::::::101111110101010101111111011111111111100


From Our Side Of The FenceHow do you harvest and store your corn silage?

Joe DecathelinaSpicer, Minn.Kandiyohi County90 cowsWhen did you begin corn silage har-vest? August 21. We were early by at least 10 days. We wanted it wetter this year; last year it was too dry. We put it up at 68 percent. How has the harvest been? Good. We had a custom harvest guy come in. We lled three 10-by-200-foot bags and a 16-by-80-foot silo. We gure we did 1,500 ton. We averaged around 25 ton an acre. It was very good silage. Do you plant a silage speci c hybrid? No, we just planted 89 and 100 day reg-ular corn. We had it planted April 13, it was early.Do you use inoculants? No, we have never used it on silage.How do you harvest and store your corn silage? The custom guy came in with a JD 6-row with a processor. My son, Grant, just graduated from Ridge-water and he wanted the longer cut for the cows. We did the three bags and the silo. The bags are fabulous. We used to ll a 16-by-70-foot and 16-by-80-foot silo, but the problem was you couldnt put it in wet enough.How much corn silage is in your ra-tion? We are using 50 pounds a day. Its better feed and our nutritionist rec-ommended it. Good corn silage is hard to beat. The feed value is great and its easier to put up and handle.What do you predict for the future of corn silage? We talked to one of our neighbors and they are planting a spe-cial silage variety of corn. They were going to bag it. It will be interesting to see if their cows milk more. The genet-ics will improve with time. Tell us about your farm. My brother, Jim, and I farm 1,400 acres of land and Grant works for us full-time. We have 600 acres of corn, 600 acres of soybeans, 100 acres of wheat and 110 acres of alfalfa. I have been dairying for 34 years and Jim has for 27 years. Grant is going to be the third generation of Decathelinas on the farm. He is the cow guy, he wants to milk cows. Until Grant came back, I handled the cows and Jim always handled the land. For chores, Jim feeds calves while Grant and I milk.

Shawn GibbsWaterville, Iowa Allamakee County400 cowsWhen did you begin corn silage har-vest? We began harvesting corn silage on Labor Day this year. It is about the same time as we typically get started.How has the harvest been? It has been going well. Yields have been good and weather has been favorable so far.Do you plant a silage speci c hybrid? Yes, we do. We have found that silage speci c hybrids bene t our operation. Milking cows have different dietary needs than dry cows. Silage speci c hybrids have helped us to better meet those nutritional needs.Do you use inoculants? We have had good luck with bunk life using inocu-lants.How do you harvest and store your corn silage? Typically, we like to har-vest at 69-70 percent moisture and chop at 3/4 -1 in length with very ne processing. We bunker large and bag smaller quantities of forage. Years ago corn silage was considered poor forage for milk cows. Now, with improve-ments in processing, length of cut and better storage methods it has become a staple forage for high producing milk cows.How much corn silage is in your ra-tion? We feed over 60 pounds to milk cows. Corn silage in our ration has in-creased greatly. I think it is because of the high energy and consistency it pro-vides.What do you predict for the future of corn silage? I think that the reward for silage speci c hybrids will be even greater in the future and there will be more choices of them. The yield and nutritional quality potential will in-crease.Tell us about your farm. My broth-er, my parents, and I own and operate Gibbs Dairy near Waterville, Iowa. We milk about 400 cows. We grow our own forage and raise our own replacements.

Don SchroederAugusta, Wis. Eau Claire County366 cowsWhen did you begin corn silage har-vest? We started on Sept. 21. Its a little sooner than past years, but more where it should be.How has the harvest been? We donthave enough done to make a determina-tion yet.Do you plant a silage speci c hybrid? No we do not. We have more exibility as to whether the crop will be harvested as silage or grain.Do you use inoculants? No we have not used inoculants.How do you harvest and store your corn silage? We harvest it ourselves with a self-propelled chopper with thewagons driving along side. It is kernel-processed and stored in 12-by-300-footsilage bags. It isnt really any differentthan prior years. This is our third year with the self-propelled chopper.How much corn silage is in your ra-tion? About 40 percent of the forage dry matter is corn silage. It is slightlyless than the past two years, as wedidnt have good hay crops those years.What do you predict for the future ofcorn silage? Yields are going to con-tinue to go up. Nutritional quality willcontinue to increase, both at a slow rate.Tell us about your farm. I own Bears Grass Dairy in Augusta, Wis. alongwith my wife, Tammy Smith Schroeder, Gary Schroeder and Don Honadel after combining herds in 2005. We milk 366cows in our double-12 parallel parlor. We farm 950 tillable acres: 410 acresof corn, 455 of alfalfa, and 85 acres ofgrass hay. Our farm was recently rec-ognized as the Eau Claire Farm Familyof the Year during the Breakfast in theValley this June, and were host to theAugusta FFA Alumnis 2015 Visit theFarm in July.

Michelle and Dick Brokish Hollandale, Wis.Iowa County 150 cowsWhen did you begin corn silage har-vest? Corn silage harvest began on Sept. 15. Thats 3-4 days later than most years. How has the harvest been? Yields for this year are down about two tons per acre from previous years. Normally I run 26-27 tons to the acre this year was 24.5 tons. Do you plant a silage speci c hybrid? I plant BMR silage corn from Mycogen. Last year was the rst year I tried it and milk production per cow went up 8-10 pounds per day. Do you use inoculants? Every year ex-cept one we used inoculants. That spe-ci c year I had some mold issues so I wont go without it again. How do you harvest and store your corn silage? This year all corn silage was put into 12-foot bags. Normally, I put silage into 20-foot upright silos. Ive had issues with gases which makes it dif- cult to level silo and feed. By bagging I eliminate worries about gas and dramati-cally speed up unloading time by hiring a self-propelled bagger for my entire har-vest. How much corn silage is in your ra-tion? I run about a 60 percent corn si-lage ration. Normally its a 50-50 corn silage to haylage ration. The BMR vari-ety I used last year works so well that I bumped up the corn silage in the ration. What do you predict for the future of corn silage? The sky seems to be the limit with corn silage, hybrids, yields and nutritional quality. The past ten years has been a tremendous jump in all areas and it doesnt seem to be slowing down. Tell us about your farm. We milk around 125 cows with the help of our four daughters ages 10, 12, 14 and 15 years. All heifer replacements are raised on the farm so usually there are about 300 head around with 20-30 dry cows. My wife is in charge of newborn calves to breeding age heifers. Through breed-ing age, they get a grain and protein pre-mix feed and dry baled hay. After being con rmed pregnant, they are put on a haylage and corn silage diet. A million gallon manure pit collects manure from about 200 head of cattle. Manure is ap-plied twice a year before corn silage is planted and after its harvested. About 50 acres of corn silage is raised on the farm and we buy about 30 acres more. All high-moisture corn, baled hay and some haylage is purchased. We only have 110 tillable acres so try to utilize our manure on our own land.

9 26 15 zone2

Documents