Page 14 • Dairy Star • Saturday, September 26, 2015
B:77 B: T:7” T: 7 7” S:6” S: 6”
B:10” B: B :1100”
T:10” T T: :10 10”
S:9” S: 9” 9”
From Our Side Of The Fence
Page 16 • Dairy Star • Saturday, September 26, 2015
How do you harvest and store your corn silage?
Michelle and Dick Brokish Hollandale, Wis. Iowa County 150 cows When did you begin corn silage harvest? Corn silage harvest began on Sept. 15. That’s 3-4 days later than most years. How has the harvest been? Yields for this year are down about two tons per acre from previous years. Normally I run 26-27 tons to the acre – this year was 24.5 tons. Do you plant a silage specic hybrid? I plant BMR silage corn from Mycogen. Last year was the rst year I tried it and milk production per cow went up 8-10 pounds per day. Do you use inoculants? Every year except one we used inoculants. That specic year I had some mold issues – so I won’t go without it again. How do you harvest and store your corn silage? This year all corn silage was put into 12-foot bags. Normally, I put silage into 20-foot upright silos. I’ve had issues with gases which makes it difcult to level silo and feed. By bagging I eliminate worries about gas and dramatically speed up unloading time by hiring a self-propelled bagger for my entire harvest. How much corn silage is in your ration? I run about a 60 percent corn silage ration. Normally it’s a 50-50 corn silage to haylage ration. The BMR variety I used last year works so well that I bumped up the corn silage in the ration. What do you predict for the future of corn silage? The sky seems to be the limit with corn silage, hybrids, yields and nutritional quality. The past ten years has been a tremendous jump in all areas and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Tell us about your farm. We milk around 125 cows with the help of our four daughters ages 10, 12, 14 and 15 years. All heifer replacements are raised on the farm so usually there are about 300 head around with 20-30 dry cows. My wife is in charge of newborn calves to breeding age heifers. Through breeding age, they get a grain and protein premix feed and dry baled hay. After being conrmed pregnant, they are put on a haylage and corn silage diet. A million gallon manure pit collects manure from about 200 head of cattle. Manure is applied twice a year – before corn silage is planted and after it’s harvested. About 50 acres of corn silage is raised on the farm and we buy about 30 acres more. All high-moisture corn, baled hay and some haylage is purchased. We only have 110 tillable acres so try to utilize our manure on our own land.
Joe Decathelina Spicer, Minn. Kandiyohi County 90 cows
Shawn Gibbs Waterville, Iowa Allamakee County 400 cows
Don Schroeder Augusta, Wis. Eau Claire County 366 cows
When did you begin corn silage harvest? August 21. We were early by at least 10 days. We wanted it wetter this year; last year it was too dry. We put it up at 68 percent.
When did you begin corn silage harvest? We began harvesting corn silage on Labor Day this year. It is about the same time as we typically get started.
When did you begin corn silage harvest? We started on Sept. 21. It’s a little sooner than past years, but more where it should be.
How has the harvest been? It has been going well. Yields have been good and weather has been favorable so far.
How has the harvest been? We don’t have enough done to make a determination yet.
Do you plant a silage specic hybrid? Yes, we do. We have found that silage specic hybrids benet our operation. Milking cows have different dietary needs than dry cows. Silage specic hybrids have helped us to better meet those nutritional needs.
Do you plant a silage specic hybrid? No we do not. We have more exibility as to whether the crop will be harvested as silage or grain.
Do you use inoculants? We have had good luck with bunk life using inoculants.
How do you harvest and store your corn silage? We harvest it ourselves with a self-propelled chopper with the wagons driving along side. It is kernelprocessed and stored in 12-by-300-foot silage bags. It isn’t really any different than prior years. This is our third year with the self-propelled chopper.
How has the harvest been? Good. We had a custom harvest guy come in. We lled three 10-by-200-foot bags and a 16-by-80-foot silo. We gure we did 1,500 ton. We averaged around 25 ton an acre. It was very good silage. Do you plant a silage specic hybrid? No, we just planted 89 and 100 day regular corn. We had it planted April 13, it was early. Do you use inoculants? No, we have never used it on silage. How do you harvest and store your corn silage? The custom guy came in with a JD 6-row with a processor. My son, Grant, just graduated from Ridgewater and he wanted the longer cut for the cows. We did the three bags and the silo. The bags are fabulous. We used to ll a 16-by-70-foot and 16-by-80-foot silo, but the problem was you couldn’t put it in wet enough. How much corn silage is in your ration? We are using 50 pounds a day. It’s better feed and our nutritionist recommended it. Good corn silage is hard to beat. The feed value is great and it’s easier to put up and handle. What do you predict for the future of corn silage? We talked to one of our neighbors and they are planting a special silage variety of corn. They were going to bag it. It will be interesting to see if their cows milk more. The genetics will improve with time. Tell us about your farm. My brother, Jim, and I farm 1,400 acres of land and Grant works for us full-time. We have 600 acres of corn, 600 acres of soybeans, 100 acres of wheat and 110 acres of alfalfa. I have been dairying for 34 years and Jim has for 27 years. Grant is going to be the third generation of Decathelinas on the farm. He is the cow guy, he wants to milk cows. Until Grant came back, I handled the cows and Jim always handled the land. For chores, Jim feeds calves while Grant and I milk.
How do you harvest and store your corn silage? Typically, we like to harvest at 69-70 percent moisture and chop at 3/4 -1 in length with very ne processing. We bunker large and bag smaller quantities of forage. Years ago corn silage was considered poor forage for milk cows. Now, with improvements in processing, length of cut and better storage methods it has become a staple forage for high producing milk cows. How much corn silage is in your ration? We feed over 60 pounds to milk cows. Corn silage in our ration has increased greatly. I think it is because of the high energy and consistency it provides. What do you predict for the future of corn silage? I think that the reward for silage specic hybrids will be even greater in the future and there will be more choices of them. The yield and nutritional quality potential will increase. Tell us about your farm. My brother, my parents, and I own and operate Gibbs Dairy near Waterville, Iowa. We milk about 400 cows. We grow our own forage and raise our own replacements.
Do you use inoculants? No we have not used inoculants.
How much corn silage is in your ration? About 40 percent of the forage dry matter is corn silage. It is slightly less than the past two years, as we didn’t have good hay crops those years. What do you predict for the future of corn silage? Yields are going to continue to go up. Nutritional quality will continue to increase, both at a slow rate. Tell us about your farm. I own Bears Grass Dairy in Augusta, Wis. along with my wife, Tammy Smith Schroeder, Gary Schroeder and Don Honadel after combining herds in 2005. We milk 366 cows in our double-12 parallel parlor. We farm 950 tillable acres: 410 acres of corn, 455 of alfalfa, and 85 acres of grass hay. Our farm was recently recognized as the Eau Claire Farm Family of the Year during the Breakfast in the Valley this June, and were host to the Augusta FFA Alumni’s 2015 Visit the Farm in July.
Page 24 • Dairy Star • Saturday, September 26, 2015