Silage Crop Management

• When trying new crops, start small. Grow 5-10 acres in the first year, take yield and feed data and observe how the livestock accept the feed and monitor their performance.

• Expand acreage from year to year as desireable.

• Access the ability of the crop to grow well over varying growing conditions

• Cereal silages are grown in a wide variety of climatic and soil conditions, are more drought resistant than alfalfa stands and are better adapted to long, dry summers.

• Spring-seeded cereals are not subject to winter kill.

• Some cereal silages change in palatability depending on stage of harvest. Earlier harvesting increases the crude protein level of legumes and grasses. Adjust harvest time to accommodate palatability and nutrient needs of the livestock to be fed.

• Spring triticale is higher yielding than barley and has a nutritional value similar to or greater than some barley varieties.

• Corn is very productive, has a very high nutritive value and while expensive to grow, should be considered in areas with adequate heat units, moisture and fertility.

• Mixtures in cereal cropping can increase overall yield due to the broader adaptibility of a mixture compared to a straight stand. Mixtures can improve nutritional value over pure stands.

• Use cereals because they are flexible for land and time use when combined in a system with perennial forages. Cerel silages not only spread out workload at harvest, but also reduce the risk of high feed costs as a result of perennial forage crop failure when untimely dry weather conditions and winterkill occur.

• Nitrogen fertilization has a marked effect on increasing the crude protein of grass hay crops and to a lesser extent of grain crops.

• The economic value of all options must be placed in the context of the entire animal production system and not evaluated as a single factor.