Hay and haylage crops are under plastic or in storage. For many forage growers across the U.S., the quality has been less than stellar due to growing conditions and challenges with maintaining a high-quality forage cutting schedule. Coupled with uncertainty on the horizon in the 2024 corn silage crop, it makes sense to think outside the box and consider stretching out your higher quality feed inventory.
Speaking with a dairy and their nutritionist a couple of weeks ago, they explained one of their strategies to manage wide-ranging corn silage quality was to feed two corn silage sources. They feed a high silage diet like many dairy producers today. Part of their nutrition program includes routinely feeding out of both a bunker and a bag. Managing two corn silages will slow down how much feed is removed from the bunker and potentially contribute to aerobic stability challenges at times; however, it will also lessen the impact that quality swings in either one has on the herd’s performance. This benefit may prove increasingly important for 2024 forage.
Speaking to agronomists from New York to Michigan to Wisconsin and into Minnesota ahead of the August Hoard’s Dairyman webinar and discussing their impressions with the 2024 corn crop, one common thread was inconsistency. New York, some of Michigan and Minnesota, and much of Wisconsin is faced with widely divergent crop maturity within farms and even within fields. Wisconsin agronomist Todd Schaumburg commented that there are fields that have a 10-day range in maturity due to the year’s growing conditions. Joe Lawrence in New York highlighted that some growers will be faced with two different harvest intervals this year following corn being spaced out into early or normal and late planting windows. Then Dann Bollinger in Michigan spoke about their harvest strategy approach proactively helping producers stage the field order and potentially segregate widely different maturity corn or quality.
Talk with your agronomist, go walk your fields, and make an assessment of your corn crop for silage maturity range relative to a normal year. I’m not certain what normal is anymore, but if your farm is faced with wider ranging maturity than anticipated or two potential corn chopping windows, consider alternative silage management options such as bagging some or putting up a small covered pile that could permit feeding two silages concurrently.
Think unconventionally
This concept has been nutritional blasphemy historically speaking, as feeding multiple corn silage sources adds labor costs, requires more feed analysis and monitoring efforts, adds time to mixing and feeding, and potentially hinders aerobic stability. I expect this topic to be controversial, but feeding two corn silage sources can offer two major benefits for the upcoming year that warrant talking about. At this point, I think it makes sense to huddle up with your nutritionist and feeding team and discuss stretching out 2023 corn silage and feeding it along the 2024 silage. The 2023 silage was exceptional quality for many, and if it’s blended with substandard 2024 silage, it might stem the blow associated with less desirable new crop silage quality. Further, if the 2024 silage quality ranges wider in quality than 2023, then we can also improve diet consistency by blending the two crops for as long as possible. This same concept might be true for hay or haylage quality as well, though we tend to store less carryover with hay or haylage crops.
Tune into the August Hoard’s Dairyman webinar on Monday, August 12 for my insights and further discussion around the 2024 crop and anticipated silage quality topics. Managing feed variation is not a new topic. Still, we stand to make sizable gains by improving the consistency in nutrient supply to dairy cows. Think like the dairy I referenced above in managing their feed variation. Ultimately, I believe there are feed conversion, enteric methane emissions or nitrogen management, and margin opportunities to be uncovered.
