Forage storage and management

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

Jon Urness, Vita Plus national forage specialist At every Vita Plus training session, meeting or other opportunity, we remind folks that, to achieve the best chance of a good silage fermentation, we need to start with a crop that is harvested at the proper moisture, maturity and particle size, then pack that feed to achieve

To manage feed costs, we’re looking to maximize the investment of every pound we feed.  For dairy farmers, a big part of that goal is making sure we get as much energy as possible out of our corn silage as opposed to that energy passing through to the back end. Lately, we’ve heard a lot

  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

There are four types of dry matter loss – fermentation loss, loss from leaching, surface spoilage loss and feedout loss. Dr. Ken Griswold, Penn State Cooperative Extension, conducted a study to measure losses from fermentation and leaching, with an objective to refine the relationship between density and loss. Griswold worked with four relatively small bunker

With all of the factors that influence forage quality, Chris Wacek-Driver said “it’s pretty amazing we produce as many high quality forages as we do.”  Wacek-Driver, Vita Plus forage program manager, congratulated harvesters for doing such a good job during her breakout session presentation at the Vita Plus Custom Harvester Meeting 2011. Wacek-Driver said, “It’s

In his role as a nutritionist for Vita Plus, Dr. John Goeser developed a report card as a means to track his performance for each dairy operation he services. This report card helps him show those dairies how well he is working for them. Goeser adapted his report card to the forage industry to help

Dr. Ken Griswold has made a career out of forages as a part of the Penn State Cooperative Extension dairy team. While that does mean he’s an expert in the field, it doesn’t mean he’s immune to the dangers that come with putting up high quality forages. This past September, Griswold was working in an