There has been a growing interest in the use of sorghum as a corn replacement or partial replacement across much of the northeast and southern Canada. Many areas are constrained by short seasons already. A large number of farms have decided to get off the “long season corn” train.
Tom
August 2015 Making Winter Forage Work for You
The June newsletter covered the spring conditions that made a perfect storm for poor winter forage yields this year. Yields were down but quality, for those who cut on time, was very good as always (see fermented forage analysis in Addendum to this letter). Some have been talking about dropping the crop, but there is NO crop I have seen in my 40 years of working and researching that is perfect. Every crop has a hole in its veneer.
The real advantage of the winter forage is for farms that have had weather related decreases in their total forage supply. Winter forage (triticale) will give you the earliest high quality, potentially high yielding crop, next spring; forage for the high cows. This crop is a real advantage in areas where much of the corn is growing in standing water.
July 2015 Last Chance Forage
With weather repeating the wet conditions of 2013, there are farms who still have not planted fields or have crops that have drowned. We have research in the ground looking at various choices but you need suggestions now.
June 2015 The Brick Wall of 2015
Winter triticale has a major role in forage production across the whole Northeast and Canada. There are some very promising new varieties coming that with normal rainfall will boost yields. There are some new seed treatments that will control snow mold and may allow for a slightly reduced seeding rate due to the optimum fall growth. And finally, in spite of the major loss of yield this year, forage harvested at flag leaf was very high quality and still the best forage we can grow in the area.
May 2015 How to Make Haylage-in-a-day Fail!
Ensiling hay crop silage at the correct moisture the same day you mow it continues to expand across dairy farms. Yet there are some who have not been able to make it work.
Here are a few of the reasons:
April 2015 Forage Harvest
The weather has been two sides of the coin lately. The Northeast, and Canada are still in the center of cool temperatures while the South is much warmer. It is a naturally occurring oscillation based on the temperatures of the water in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. In this natural cycle we are going back to the long term average temperatures. The earlier than normal springs we had been getting, are now reverting to what we used to have a number of years ago: cooler, later springs. This year is approaching the 30 year average of 1965—1995. Don’t panic, we survived then and will survive now if you adjust to the new (old) normal spring.
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March 2015 Nitrogen and Winterkill Alfalfa
Research on spring nitrogen for triticale found that a two dry matter ton crop of winter forage removes about 100 lbs of N/acre. About 50 lbs of N is needed for each ton of dry matter removed. To get both yield and protein from your forage, crops need sulfur. There is no longer enough sulfur being deposited in rain to meet the needs of the crops we grow.
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Feb 2015 Minimum Till Haylage
Minimum till haylage is a new process where we optimize the forage planted, carefully watch to harvest at the peak of quality, and then use the mower to mix a pile of dirt, dead bugs, half rotten plant residue into the forage to make sure your feed will have limited milk producing ability. Looking at the table at the right, the range of ash is considerable. The worst offended are legume and winter forage (triticale). There are two key points this occurs.
Dec 2014 Steps to High Forage Diet and Why
Click here for full newsletter Dec 2014 High Forage
As the forecasts for milk price continue to slide, dairy farmers are justifiably concerned for their bottom line. The shock is magnified having just come off of very good prices. Yes, grain prices have also slid but not as much as milk is forecasted. I saw this similar setup in the early 1980’s and it was not pretty.
October 2014 BMR Sorghum
Interest in BMR sorghum as a potential companion to or replacement of corn silage in high forage diets continues to grow. We are working to develop the steps for a greater chance of success with this crop at both Cornell with Dr. Ketterings, and the Valatie research farm.
Click here for full newsletter:Oct 2014 BMR sorghum