Forage Foundations

By Pat Hoffman, Vita Plus dairy technical specialist
While the weather allowed most corn silage and crops to be harvested before a killing frost set in, the planting of winter cereal forages were delayed or not accomplished. If you are questioning if it is too late to plant your cereal crops or if they will make it, this article seeks to provide some tips on winter cereal crop evaluation.

Most all dairy producers share similar headaches during harvest season whether they own their own mchinery or hire custom harvesters. So what is the better option? Two producers shared their thoughts and insight on the strategies that best fit their business model.

By Jon Urness, Vita Plus national forage specialist
If you have adequate corn silage kernel processing, yet a high fecal starch percentage, you may need to look into your grain source and high moisture corn processing equipment for answers.

Two of the most common types of high moisture corn processing equipment available are hammer mills and roller mills. Either can adequately process corn, but the choice sometimes boils down to availability.

Corn silage harvest is in full gear across most of the Midwest! As you get a few minutes out of the fields, check to see how harvest has been going in your area.

By Jon Rasmussen, Vita Plus dairy technology specialist
In part one of this series, I discussed how we can better manage haylage in the field to minimize quality variation. Now, we will turn our attention to how dairy nutritionists manage haylage variation in the ration.

By Jon Urness, Vita Plus national forage specialist
When we consider a technology that promises better forage quality, we often ask, “What does it cost?”

In reality, a better question would be “How much does it save?”

Weighing the option to use oxygen barrier plastic under conventional plastic is a great example of that scenario.

By Jon Rasmussen, Vita Plus dairy technology specialist
When it comes to dairy cow diets today, we mostly discuss higher corn silage or byproduct diets and not high-haylage diets. One of the reasons for this shift has been challenges with variation in haylage quality. Minimizing this variation is key if you are considering additional haylage in a diet or looking to take full advantage of all the knowledge gained in balancing diets for amino acids, fiber digestibility, and starch utilization.