Forage Foundations

California may be a U.S. state, but, when it comes to custom forage harvesting, it seems like a whole different world compared with typical Midwest operations.

Bob Headrick has been a part of that world since he started his custom harvesting business in 1976.  He bought his first choppers in the ‘80s and grew his business until 2010, when he sold it to his “competitors and friends” at Dias & Fragoso.  That business is currently owned and operated by Bud and Jerrod Fragoso, and Headrick continues to work with Dias & Fragoso as a forage consultant. 

Huffman Farms in McGregor, Texas is a little different from other custom harvester operations. Kevin Huffman, owner, and Johan Brink, forage program manager, said they do a significant amount of custom harvesting in addition to harvesting, storing and delivering more than 50,000 tons of corn silage to dairies around central Texas.

By Dr. Michelle Windle, Vita Plus forage products and dairy technical service specialist
The winter months often offer a time to reflect on the past year’s work, including the forages program.  To assist with that review, Vita Plus has developed a forage scorecard to help highlight areas of your forages program where you excel and areas for improvement. 

Editor’s note:  In addition to multiple customer service responsibilities at Vita Plus Gagetown in Gagetown, Michigan, Dwain Ewald takes the lead on maintenance services for customers’ forage inoculant applicators. 

By Dwain Ewald, Vita Plus Gagetown customer service
With cold temperatures and piles of snow on the ground, it’s sometimes hard to think about and prepare for the upcoming forage season.  However, doing a little maintenance now can save a lot of time when things get rolling in the spring.  In this article, I will focus on the maintenance of the DE-1000 and DE-1008.5 forage inoculant applicator units manufactured by Dohrmann Enterprises, Inc.  Maintenance steps are similar for both machines.

By Jon Rasmussen, Vita Plus dairy technology specialist
Many farmers can still remember buying seed corn from a neighbor because he was a seed dealer and right next door.  Those days are long gone and producers now have to select from a variety of seeds that will give them the best return on their land while meeting all of their livestock’s needs.  This requires using more university-based research to sort through the many available hybrids.

By Jon Urness, Vita Plus national forage specialist
An American university once received a $250,000 federal grant to study the characteristics of cow manure.  The conclusion of its study: manure is slippery.  I think they could have saved the money and just asked a dairy producer.  I don’t know the specifics of the study, but we sure don’t need a university study to tell us something we have known for decades: things can get slippery on the farm, especially in the winter. 

By Dr. Michelle Windle, Vita Plus forage products and dairy technical service specialist
Dairy cows are fed silage all year-round.  This means selecting the right inoculant for your operation has the potential to impact the farm’s bottom line on many fronts.  With the inoculant market becoming flooded with so many different choices, it's getting harder to decide which inoculant is right for your needs.   A good inoculant should meet certain qualifications before being considered for use on a farm.  These qualifications include the following...

By Richard Mensendike, Vita Plus dairy specialist
In this fourth video of a five-part series, Richard Mensendike, Vita Plus Lanark livestock specialist, walks through the proper steps of sampling upright silos to help you make management and nutrition decisions.  We’ll discuss sampling strategies for other storage structures and feed in upcoming editions of Forage Foundations.

By Jon Urness, Vita Plus national forage specialist
When Shredlage^® was introduced in 2008, it caused quite a stir among dairy producers, nutritionists, custom chopper operators, equipment manufacturers and university researchers. 

By Jenny Kilpatrick, Premier Insurance Solutions, LLC insurance agent
As a crop insurance agent in Wisconsin, each year I talk with producers about which crops they want to insure.  Corn, soybeans, wheat, oats and established hay are most frequently mentioned, but producers often forget about their valuable forage seeding crop. 

By Dr. Daniel Undersander, University of Wisconsin-Extension forage agronomist
Lignin is the key plant cell wall component that gives a plant strength to stand up and prevent water from leaking during transport from the root to the leaves.  This may be good for the plant, but lignin also reduces plant cell wall digestibility in mammals.  For these reasons, we want to find the proper balance of lignin to support the plant without drastically reducing digestibility.

With the 2016 fall harvest behind us, hear from our Vita Plus dairy and forage consultants as they reflect on the hay, corn silage and grain harvests at several points in the Vita Plus market area.