Dairy and beef producers proceed to be hit with the excessive value of forages. Discovering methods to develop forages economically is a good technique for enhancing feed inventories and decreasing total feed prices, says Jerry Clark, College of Wisconsin-Extension crops and soils agent in Chippewa County.
“The entire cowl crop push is to maintain one thing dwelling on the land,” Clark says. “Rye and triticale are nice to plant within the fall after which harvest for feed in Might.”
Clark says in August, farmers can plant oats and radishes for feed within the fall. “You possibly can chop it or make baleage,” he explains. “It’s an excellent early-season forage that may be chopped. It’s OK to plant oats late summer time following wheat as a result of you aren’t harvesting the oats as a grain.”
Clark says this helps dairy and beef producers get further forage off earlier than they plant corn silage the tip of Might. Annual ryegrass and meadow fescue are different choices for summer time and fall forage.
Josh Hiemstra farms 790 owned and rented acres together with his dad, Bob, close to Brandon in western Fond du Lac County, Wis. The Hiemstras milk 150 Holstein cows, and lift 100 dairy heifers and calves, and 175 head of dairy-beef.
Additional forages
The Hiemstras started rising cowl crops 16 years in the past to assist enhance soil well being and to supply extra feed for his or her dairy cattle. After harvesting corn silage final fall, they seeded 75 acres of ryelage and triticale combined.
“The triticale matures a bit of later than the ryelage,” Josh Hiemstra says. “I planted 60 kilos of every to the acre. If you’ll seed rye and triticale for feed, you’ll want to seed them heavier than you’ll for only a cowl crop.”
Whereas some farmers like to use urea on their rye or triticale to spice up tonnage, Hiemstra utilized 7,000 gallons of liquid manure per acre final fall after seeding the crop.
“Rye could be very tolerant of manure functions,” he says. “I planted the rye after which unfold manure. Silage got here off, we no-tilled the rye, after which it got here up.”
He plans to cut the rye and triticale combine for feed for the heifers when it’s prepared in mid- to late Might.
“Then I’m going to double-crop these 75 acres,” Hiemstra says. “I’ll plant canning peas on a few of it; I’ll plant soybeans on a few of it, and the remainder I’ll plant corn for silage.”
On the bottom that he plans to double-crop with canning peas, Hiemstra figures he’ll get 4 crops off that land in two years.
“I had corn silage on it final yr and seeded the rye and triticale in early October. Then after I chop the ryelage and triticale in Might, we’re going to place canning peas in,” he explains. “It will likely be harvested in July, after which we’ll fall-seed alfalfa in August. So, I’m going to get 4 crops off these acres in two years. I gained’t harvest the alfalfa this fall, however will probably be able to go subsequent spring.”
Hiemstra says they plan to feed the ryelage and triticale to their heifers.
“We keep away from feeding our heifers our good haylage. We want that for the cows,” he says. “However now we have fed triticale and ryelage to the cows previously. It makes nice feed. You simply have to reap it early. If you’re feeding it to heifers, it may be harvested after the rye heads out.”
The Hiemstras’ herd averages 85 kilos of milk per cow per day.
“We milk twice a day. Our cows have a 4.2% fats and a 3.2% protein,” he says. “We’re capturing for six.3 kilos of whole solids or 100 kilos of energy-corrected milk per cow per day.”
Cheap feed
Hiemstra figures it prices him about $65 an acre to seed 60 kilos of triticale and 60 kilos of rye, plus harvesting prices.
“It’s a really economical feed. At 3 tons to the acre, that works out to about $22 per ton plus harvest prices,” Hiemstra says. “That’s fairly low cost. You might be getting feed price $100 a ton or $300 an acre. Determine you might be spending $100 an acre for that crop, and you might be getting $300 price of feed per acre.”
Along with rising cowl crops for feed, Hiemstra says he seeded rye on all their soybean and corn floor final fall.
“I seeded it at 60 kilos per acre. Rye is the hardiest cowl crop to seed within the fall in early October,” he says. “I’ve put it in as late as Nov. 1. It simply is dependent upon how determined you might be — it can develop. It makes nice feed. It’s a bit of extra economical to plant than triticale, however the feed worth isn’t as excessive.”
