Tom

There are many forage experts in the industry. Unfortunately, a vast number are “silo smart”. They have deep knowledge about a small slice of the agriculture industry producing forage, but not enough to step back and see the way quality forage production interacts in a holistic system on the farm. They missed the impact of many of the in-between steps that significantly affect the outcome for their products and for the farm. It took me several years when I started 50 years ago, before I learned to approach it from both the production and consumption ends, see the system, and managing the processes affecting it.

Click here for Full Newsletter

Research on optimum management for high winter forage quality has shown that nitrogen plays a key role in both the fall and spring growth and protein. Fall nitrogen is critical to maximize fall tillering (sets spring yield potential) and is applied at planting, so that management time has passed. Spring is when nitrogen (and critical sulfur) is applied for maximum yield and high crude protein. This is specifically for winter triticale. Our replicated research has found that increasing the nitrogen on winter rye will simply mean more of the crop is flat on the ground at harvest. Winter triticale is 2/3 as tall as rye but many more tillers produce a thicker stand and higher yields without lodging

Click here for full newsletter

For many, this was the year they would like to forget.  Every time you turned around, the weather was against you.  But you still need forage for the animals.   This month, we turn to the earliest quality forage you can make.

Our winter triticale forage research and development started 30 years ago when it was a mediocre after-thought forage of 1.5 – 2.0 tons of dry matter.  Since then, our research has produced a forage of higher digestibility than early, first-cut alfalfa.  This can mean 9.5 lbs. more milk from the same dry matter.  Farmers report that the high digestibility eliminates the “summer slump” in hot weather.

Click Here for Full Newsletter

As mentioned in the June newsletter, at this point, a one cut of BMR sorghum-Sudan, or Sudan grass, or Pearl Millet, can give you highly digestible forage at the end of September. In my tests, we have harvested 2 to 3 tons of very decent forage, even though it was planted in mid-July with a warm fall.  An overlooked crop is BMR pearl millet. Other researchers and I have found that pearl millets have very high feed quality. In our replicated study, the grazing corn was 12.9% crude protein, the sorghum-Sudan was 14.2%; and the BMR pearl millet was 20% crude protein. The energy was similar (very high) between the BMR grazing corn, BMR sorghum-Sudan, and BMR pearl millet. All three had very high plant sugars. The pearl millet does not have prussic acid management issues. It yields very well in late summer. Pearl millet has thinner stems that may be easier to round bale for wrapping. If you are looking at grazing, be careful, as it is so rich that it can cause bloat.

Click Here For Full Newsletter

“A drought will scare a man to death; a flood will starve him”: old farmer quote.

Surviving when weather turns against you means thinking outside the box.  The wet and cool/cold has held on and now has put normal planting/harvesting into the far edges of the bell shaped curve of normal results.  The key to remember is YOU STILL HAVE OPTIONS if you think outside the box.   Same old, same old will not cut it this year.

Not all the corn is planted and fields are still too wet.  If there are corn grain growers in the area they are struggling with the wet weather, and the cloudy conditions will significantly decrease projected yields based on previous years like this.  Thus, they may be open for you to buy their standing corn out of the field.  It is not the highly digestible varieties you normally grow but will make more milk than sticks and dirt clods you are facing now.  It is critical to watch the milk line and harvest grain varieties slightly earlier to assure full kernel digestibility and maximize stalk fiber digestion.

Click here for Full Newsletter

The crazy winter has moved into a crazy spring.  Here in Tennessee, we have bounced between 85°F and 25°F in just a couple of days.  Our triticale is well past quality and was harvested a couple of weeks ago. The bursts of warm days really rushed it through.  North of the Mason-Dixon line (Pennsylvania’s southern border), it is quickly moving past the optimum of stage 9 (flag leaf).   Further north in New York, New England, and the upper Midwest ( Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota) and southern Canada, the triticale and rye is still well behind due to the cold weather.

Click here for full newsletter

The winter was very different from others (aren’t they all??) with considerable cold and extensive snow in many areas.  For many of the winter days, we were colder here in Tennessee than our friends in New York.  The winter forage on a wide area had to struggle.  Our research at Spring Hill (harvested Thursday) was estimated at 2/3 of the very high yield we had at Knoxville last year. Watch your crop closely as the warm spells and the much above average temperatures forecasted for the next two weeks can rapidly drive it past the optimum quality harvest stage before you realize it.  You need to be ready to harvest BEFORE the crop is ready!  You need to apply an inoculant to preserve that quality

Click here for full newsletter

We are at the same stage of BMR male sterile sorghum as we were in the early stages of winter triticale work 30 years ago.  We can see the huge benefits on farms, but we are trying to develop the best management techniques to optimize the farmer’s success with this crop.  Winter triticale forage was 1.5 – 2.0 tons of dry matter when we started.  It is now 3.5 to 4 tons dm/A in the north and as high as 6.5 t/dm/A in the south. Harvested at peak nutrition, triticale now has higher milk potential than good alfalfa haylage.  Now, we are developing management to bring male sterile BMR sorghum to that level of results and replace corn silage in the dairy diet.

Click here for full newsletter

Winter forage triticale planting date is critical to fall nitrogen uptake and its yield benefit. Planted on time for your region, triticale has been shown to take up and store over 100 lbs. of nitrogen. Our New York research found nitrogen and sulfur as a starter at planting will give a tremendous yield boost at all nitrogen levels next spring. This is a case of either you have it or you don’t. If you are not planting on time (two weeks before the wheat date for your region), you will not get the nitrogen uptake. Even worse you will not get the yield boost the next spring because of the missed earlier planting date and the plant-ing nitrogen. This fall nitrogen has to be spread at planting so the winter forage plants can access it as soon as they emerge.

Click Here for Full Newsletter

In many areas of the US we had extremely dry conditions.  Northern areas and into Canada had the opposite weather.   It would not stop raining.  Not just small showers, but 2-3 inches at a dump.  Even the ducks were carrying umbrellas! As we mentioned in the last newsletter, crops planted on winter forage stubble (see picture page 3) were clearly better than those without the winter crop.  Even with winter forage some farms will struggle with forage supply through next year.

Click here for full newsletter