Have you purchased your seed for this year? Why did you choose that variety? And, how soon do you anticipate getting into the field to plant? E-mail your answers to editor@progressiveforage.com and let’s hear what’s happening with your 2011 crop.

Advertisement

0111fg_silage_3Jeff Handschke
Sugar Creek Dairy • New London, Wisconsin

This year with milk prices being down, we are looking at price as probably the biggest factor. We are going to go with some non-stacked corn, just a conventional variety to save some dollars this year.

We did also look at some yield trials to make some decisions. But we’ve also been trying some tropical corn for our custom heifer-raising operation, as more traits for standability are being bred into that. It’s a longer-maturing corn and doesn’t get grain on it so we don’t get a lot of energy in the feed for the heifers. We generally order early to ensure a good supply of seed.



0211fg_silage_1Rodney Elliott
Drumgoon Dairy • Lake Norden, South Dakota

We work closely with our agronomist and our nutritionist on what we call “synchronized nutrition,” which is basically trying to grow the right silages and other forages so we get the proper diet for our dairy cows.

We try to get as close to the perfect balance as we can. We work with some specific silage varieties and have done research to find varieties we know will work for us.

But we are only in control of about 20 percent of our varieties, since we don’t have enough land to grow all the silage we use. So as we work with local crop growers, we have to get them thinking the same way we are to make it work.

 

0111fg_silage_2Chris Sukalski and Scott Reiland
Reiland Farms • LeRoy, Minnesota

There are several things we take into consideration before making hybrid selections each year. Digestibility continues to be at the top of the priority list, along with drought tolerance and standability.

We’ve found that BMR hybrids have the characteristics we’re looking for. Tonnage also is very important to us, as is price.

0211fg_silage_2We’ve already made our seed purchase for 2011 and it’s enough to plant 300 acres. And we buy early whenever possible to take advantage of the price discount.

 

 

 

 

 

 

0111fg_silage_4Keith Dawydko
Anchor Farms, Inc • Clarence, New York

I was not happy with our silage test over the last three years using a high-sugar, low-lignin silage variety. The test was only average in comparison to others. Prior to that we had been using a TMF variety from Mycogen and a silage-specific from NK.

We always had a test that was above average with these varieties. But I had heard about NutriDense® from Dyna-Gro in the fall of 2009, so did some research on the product and decided to give it a try.

The 92-day Dyna-Gro produced above-average results with 10 percent crude protein that we did not get before. Hopefully with some minor adjustments to the fertilizer program, we can do even better in 2011.

 

0111fg_silage_5

Ray Robinson
Moo Mountain Milk and East Ridge Milk • Burley, Idaho

We’ve already made our seed purchase for the 2011 season. First and foremost, we’re after higher digestibility. Selecting hybrid varieties that provide higher digestibility have had a positive effect on the overall health of our herd.

And increased milk production is always something we look to achieve. Weed control can be an issue for us, too, so we will continue to use the BMR varieties with Roundup Ready® traits.