For those south of my Albany, NY location, you can still plant spring oats now at 3 – 5 bu/a of grain type oats for a harvest by early October. If you are planting on program acres that do not allow a harvest until November 1, then a forage type oat that matures later is better. A grain type oat is preferred for dairy farms as it will get to heading sooner and so drop the moisture level closer to what you need for ensiling.
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July 2013 Late Forages
Fields Not Planted or Underwater?
Most of the areas encompassing this newsletter continue to have excessive rainfall. Some fields are still not planted; others have drowned. This was predicted earlier in the season due to the cool Pacific and warm Atlantic cycles coupled with volcanoes pouring ash into the Arctic Circle. This follow-up to the June letter is to give you a wider range of potential choices to fit the resources in the location of your farm.
June 2013 Wet Fields
Late May and most of June has had a tremendous amount of water through the soil. What about the nitrogen? (see March 2013 newsletter) For first year corn on sod (rotation pays again!) and heavily manured fields (daily spread), the slow steady release from organic matter throughout the season reduces the nitrogen losses.
May 2013 When to Harvest
Each year we track where the crops are to give the farmers some idea if they should panic and stop planting corn to do haylage, or to keep planting. This year is no exception other than we, with our short term memory, are comparing it to the record early season of 2012. Yes, it is snowing in the mid-west. We had a major snow on Mother’s day in the 1980’s. The bottom line is that the weather has moved back to a near normal condition, something we are not used to having.
April 2013 changing weather
Last year we had several heat waves and the season was running record early. This year the season is running right on the 30 year average – something it hasn’t done in a while. Skipping the political science and going to the real science, the Pacific Ocean has a multi-decade swing between warmer than average and cooler than average.
March 2013 N & S
Now is the time to apply nitrogen. In research and on-farm results, nitrogen TRIPLED the total yearly yields on perennial grasses where it was applied.
February 2013 Sorghum
the sorghum species has tremendous potential under dry conditions. With the development of shorter season varieties (83 day), this potential has moved north. As long as the summer is warm, it will continue to move north.
January 2013 Speciality Forages
An option that is getting more attention from dairy farms is to produce forage specifically for young stock or dry cows. Late milk or early soft dough is a forage that can be directly mowed and immediately chopped as it does not need to be dried down.
December 2012, Winter Forage Rotations
For a number of these newsletters I have been bringing the results of our many research projects at the Cornell Valatie Research Farm in Eastern NY. The focus has been on high yielding, very high quality forage that can support dairy rations encompassing greater than 70% forage in the diet and high milk production with high components, critical to leveraging profit back into dairying. NONE are silver bullets. All have to operate within the farm system, soils, and labor/equipment resources you have
October 2012, Wet forage
With the nearly every day shower for the past couple of weeks, fall harvest of forage is ever more challenging. The biggest limit on the use of oats in the fall is weather like we have had where it mists or rains nearly every day. This, coupled with the cool temperatures, shorter day length, and less intense sunshine as it is lower on the horizon, add a dollop of high yielding (6 to 10 ton) silage, makes a perfect storm for not drying to 35%.