By WCM Staff on 8/24/2005 9:00 PM

Understanding the relationship between corn grain and forage yield is important to dairymen and grain farmers who often contract with each other for corn silage production. Recently, the grain versus forage relationship has set government Loan Deficiency (LDP) Payments to farmers for corn silage acres.

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By WCM Staff on 8/24/2005 8:00 PM

The difficult alfalfa harvesting conditions early this summer have meant that many farmers are off schedule for harvesting alfalfa. This raises the question of best management for alfalfa harvest as the end of summer approaches.

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By WCM Staff on 8/4/2005 9:00 PM

The questions we should be considering is how to maximize that growth for good hay, silage or pasture production. Below we will consider the major crops and what actions should be taken.

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By WCM Staff on 5/25/2005 9:00 PM

Many growers are asking about the tradeoffs in yield and quality as they enter quality pricing contracts for hay or haylage. The situation is that premiums are paid for quality but some of the higher price for increased forage quality is offset by lower yields of fields cut earlier for the higher quality.

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By WCM Staff on 5/3/2005 8:00 PM

The cold temperatures during the last week of April have caused some frost damage to alfalfa. Following are recommendations for evaluating damage and taking action.

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By WCM Staff on 9/8/2004 9:00 PM

Arriving at a fair and equitable price for corn silage is difficult due to the number of factors involved that are dynamic and biologically variable. Some factors include production costs, grain price, harvesting costs, costs of handling, hauling and storage, grain drying costs, fertility value of stover, and forage quality (especially starch content and neutral detergent fiber digestibility-NDFD).

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By WCM Staff on 8/25/2004 7:00 PM

Although there isn't much data on grazing soybeans, beans can be high in quality and provide good grazing. Recommendations are listed.

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By WCM Staff on 1/14/2004 11:00 PM

Many fields in Wisconsin had uneven crop development during the 2003 growing season. We were interested in the forage moisture differences of corn in knoll and swale areas of the field.

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By WCM Staff on 9/3/2003 7:00 PM

Cereal crops such as oats, barley, triticale, wheat, and rye may be a source of emergency fall forage and/or a source of forage the following spring. The choice of which specie to plant depends on the importance or need for forage in the fall as opposed to forage in the spring.

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By WCM Staff on 4/23/2003 9:00 PM

The following is a summary of planting date trials conducted at Arlington, WI. The objective of these trials is to measure the impact of planting date on corn forage yield and quality.

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By WCM Staff on 6/12/2002 10:00 PM

In the 25 April 2002 issue of the Wisconsin Crop Manager, I suggested one way to make T requirements is to raise the cutter bar on the corn silage chopper. This strategy lowers silage yield, but a trade-off exists whereby silage quality is increased.

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By WCM Staff on 4/24/2002 7:00 PM

By correlating studies that estimate percent ground cover from corn residue mass with cutting height studies conducted in Wisconsin we might be able to derive some general guidelines for managing corn silage on highly erodible land.

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By WCM Staff on 9/5/2001 10:00 PM

The corn production season of 2001 has been extremely "variable." This year’s variability is more within fields than between fields and the harvest season will present some special handling problems.

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By WCM Staff on 7/18/2001 10:00 PM

Moisture swings during growing season 2001 have been significant to say the least. Although the current round of dry weather may not rival the memorable droughts of prior years, it is raising management concerns.

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