Forage inoculants

By Jon Urness, Vita Plus national forage specialist Dairy producers have successfully harvested, stored and fed high moisture corn for many years. By now, most have the routine down pat. But when things go wrong, it’s often the lack of high moisture that causes problems.  Naturally, too much moisture can be a challenge as well,

By Jon Urness, national forage specialist Getting it right when it comes to corn silage harvest and storage has become more and more critical as it’s often the dominant forage in today’s dairy rations.  And you get just one chance.  You don't get any “do-overs” or “mulligans” when it comes to putting up a year’s

Chris Wacek-Driver, Vita Plus forage program manager Alfalfa is a particularly challenging crop to ensile due to naturally occurring compounds (primarily acids and proteins) that effectively buffer the crop.  Practically speaking, this means it takes more acid - and thus more sugar - to reach the correct pH endpoint.  At moistures of 65 percent or

Vita Plus Forage Team Winter 2014 seemed like it would never end.  Inevitably, that means that the upcoming planting and haylage season will fly by all too quickly.  As you wait out the last days of cool temperatures and wet fields, take a few minutes to clean up your applicators and review inoculant mixing procedures. 

Are we pasteurizing the bugs in inoculant tank mixes?  That was the question Dr. Owen Mickley, Vita Plus dairy specialist, posed during the heat of last year's corn silage harvest in central Ohio. Just a couple weeks earlier, Mickley hosted a custom harvester meeting for about a dozen chopper operators. The subject of inoculant tank

 A half-hour in the shop on a cold winter day could prevent big trouble and delay next summer when you’ve got trucks lined up, packing tractors fueled, and forage that’s ready to harvest…NOW! Many forage chopper owners take advantage of the inoculant applicator technology offered by Dohrmann Enterprises, Inc., specifically the DE-1000 and DE-1010

   Click to download presentation Applicators are a critical tool for anyone looking to apply inoculants at harvest. At the Vita Plus Custom Harvester Meeting, Dan Dohrmann of Dohrmann Enterprises, Inc. shared advancements in applicator technology and general equipment maintenance. There are three basic types of applicators, he said, granular, conventional and low volume/concentrate.

  Investing in microbial inoculants can pay off through improved fermentation and aerobic stability.  However, properly managing those inoculants is key to getting the biggest value back from that investment. That’s according to Michelle Windle, a graduate student working with Dr. Limin Kung in the Dairy Nutrition and Silage Fermentation Lab at the University of

  Click to download presentation Over the past five years, U.S. harvesters have put up 109.9 million tons of corn silage, according to Dr. Keith Bolsen, professor emeritus with Kansas State University and private forage consultant. That means that corn silage is a $7 billion industry today.  Compare that to the $2 billion industry of

Forage cannot be made better from the point it leaves the field, therefore our goal as an industry is to start with the best quality forage possible and preserve it with excellent silage management, said Dr. Limin Kung, University of Delaware. Harvesters and producers should have two goals in making fermented feeds. At the front

One simple principle makes Lactobacillus buchneri 40788 stand out against other bacterial forage inoculants. According to Bob Charley with Lallemand Animal Nutrition, that simple principle is a commitment to quality. Buchneri 40788 is the only FDA-approved, research-patented bacteria known to improve aerobic stability of high moisture corn and forages. When used with proper crop management,

Ecosyl is as committed to producing high quality inoculants as today’s custom harvesters are committed to putting up top-notch forages. That’s according to Dr. Andrew Beardsmore of Ecosyl Products Limited. Vita Plus Crop-N-Rich is a unique forage inoculant based on the scientifically proven Lactobacillus plantarum bacterial strain MTD/1. This inoculant has been shown to provide

A group of custom harvesters came together to discuss the latest applicator technology at the Vita Plus Custom Harvester Meeting 2011. Led by Jon Urness, Vita Plus national forage specialist, the discussion featured two new-to-the-market inoculant applicators. Gordon Marley, from Ecosyl Products Limited, first outlined the development and advantages of ULV (ultra low volume) applicators.