Forage Foundations

Producing high-quality small-grain silage presents challenges related to moisture management and the maintenance of anaerobic conditions for optimal fermentation. Ensuring the correct moisture content - 60% to 65% moisture or 35% to 40% dry matter (DM) - is crucial.

The reality of harvesting forage fields is that we must drive over them. However, wheel traffic causes both surface and deep-soil compaction, damage to the field and the forage stand, and crop yield reductions. To reduce damage, producers should implement several practices.

When it comes time to assess your harvest success, a critical factor is the economics of your crops. A tool developed by Vita Plus can help you compare the value of the crop you harvested to the potential value of other crops you could harvest on the same acreage, such as high moisture corn (HMC), earlage or corn silage.

“My neighbor is selling haylage.  What is it worth?” This question has been posed to dairy and forage consultants countless times.  The answer depends on numerous factors - both subjective and objective.  When broken down, the process isn’t as daunting as it may initially seem.

Feed inventories can make up as much as 50% of a producer’s current assets, depending on the time of year that inventories are measured. Bankers often look at metrics that take current assets into account, such as current ratios (current assets divided by current debt) and working capital per cow (current assets minus current debt, divided by total cows).

Fermentation is the anaerobic (absence of oxygen) conversion of sugars into acids (i.e., lactic acid). The sooner oxygen is eliminated from the silage storage unit, the sooner fermentation begins and the pH can drop. A slow pH drop can result in greater dry matter loss.

What is the most cost-effective way to store ensiled feeds? When considering storage options for ensiled forages and grains, this question inevitably comes up. Let’s go through some generic comparisons.

To ensure a successful drive-over silage pile is achieved, planning, preparation and communication are essential. These success areas and many more are showcased in the Vita Plus Building Safe and Successful Silage Piles video.

Feed makes up more than half of the costs on a dairy farm. In recent years, more attention has been given to the cost of feed shrink. More indoor feeding centers are being constructed in the Upper Midwest.

As this year’s crop plans and seed hybrids are finalized, some producers are considering pairing reduced-lignin alfalfa with brown midrib corn silage. The question arises, can pairing these technologies result in too much digestible fiber?

The challenges to establishing a healthier and diverse soil environment can be overcome by breaking the big picture into small, manageable, bite-size steps.

Mold spores are everywhere - in the air, on your skin and on the plants we harvest for animal feed. Certain weather conditions during the growing season can promote the growth of molds.

Two Vita Plus silage inoculants – Crop-N-Rich® MTD/1® and Drive – preserve silage quality and quantity by improving fermentation efficiency through the production of lactic acid and a more rapid drop in silage pH.

Maximizing homegrown forages is appealing to dairy producers, especially as they face tough market conditions. Many considerations should be made to ensure you don’t lose money in the quest to save it.

It is no secret that forage quality can make or break the productivity — and profitability — of a herd. When we accurately identify feed hygiene challenges, we can take steps to minimize negative outcomes and prevent future occurrences.

Spoilage is a challenge that all producers face at some point and the cost of not addressing it can be high.  For example, if corn silage is worth roughly $40 per ton, a 5,000-ton pile is worth $200,000.  Even a 1% loss on this pile means a loss of $2,000 worth of feed.  Typical losses from spoilage easily exceed this number.  Preventing spoilage means feed stays in the pile and money stays in your pocket.