Harvest & Storage

Storage
After all the blood, sweat, and tears that went into making that stack of perfect hay, added to alternately praying for and cursing the weather, how about a little common sense in storing the product?

Some of you reading this may never have considered the ensilage process as a preservation option, while others of you have been practicing this preservation technique since you and your pitchfork first lost your job to a silo unloader.

As herd sizes have grown, so have the storage units that preserve the forages used to feed dairy cows.

Fundamentally, the goal of hay production is to provide an inexpensive feedstuff that meets the nutritional needs (i.e., energy, protein, mineral, etc.) of the livestock.

Men and women who harvest forage crops need to follow the weather predictions closely, especially when there is a shift to the “chance of showers” weather pattern.

Preventing molds and mycotoxins in dairy cattle feed is imperative to keep a herd healthy and on track to meet operational goals. Since there are few ways to overcome issues once mycotoxins are present, it is essential to prevent them from creeping into the ration.