Forage Foundations

  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

  Click to download presentation John Brantsen, a Vita Plus dairy nutritionist, remembers the 2011 harvest season well.  In his area of northwest Iowa, the late summer and fall brought high temperatures and a lot of wind.  He said harvesters in the area were racing the weather, trying to get corn silage harvested before it

  Click to download presentation It’s bound to happen…corn silage harvest is in full swing, harvesters are rolling, trucks are busy hauling and the pack tractors are moving back and forth when the nutritionist pulls in the driveway. They get out of the truck, walk up to the bunker, take a look at the freshly

  Click to download presentation Custom harvesters know that a high corn silage processing score (CSPS) is a top goal for dairy producers as they’re looking to get the most energy value out of today’s expensive feeds.  The catch is that estimating CSPS in the field is not an easy or consistent task. Dr. Brian

   Photo: (left to right) Bruce Dankers, Dankers Enterprises, Inc., Chuck Fahey, Prairieland Dairy, LLC, and Aaron Kutz, Kutz Dairy, LLC Harvesting corn as Shredlage™ is so new that there hasn’t been time for a lot of research to be conducted. Dr. Randy Shaver, with the University of Wisconsin–Madison, has done a few trials,

  Click to download presentation Roger Olson of Shredlage, LLC has extensive experience in nutrition consulting with dairy herds.  According to Olson, anytime something was going wrong with a farm’s nutrition program, he observed “cigarette butts” in the manure.  That is, he noticed the round, blunt chunks associated with conventional corn silage. A few years

   Click to download presentation Dairy producers have expressed interest in feeding corn as Shredlage™. At the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Dr. Randy Shaver has been conducting feeding trials to see what makes it tick inside the cow. He shared his results with those looking to put up feed for dairies at the

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

Just as tractors aren’t what they used to be, the custom harvester business has grown more complex. The four gears on the old tractor kept in the corner of the machine shed aren’t enough to meet the needs of your business today. Gary Sipiorski with Vita Plus helps shift the gears through your custom harvesting

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

Dr. Matthew Digman with the U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center and Jason Schiebout with Scherer Corrugating & Machine, Inc. led an open discussion on chopper adjustments and particle size in harvesting corn silage. “There is a lot of debate about proper length of cut and roll gap and how the two interact,” Digman said. The

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.

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