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New Technology Brings Confidence During Forage Harvest

Dry matter quality starts in the field.

If a dairy operation is looking for ways to optimize their margins, they should look at their forage harvest processes. From farm to “fork”, the quality of forage starts long before it’s mixed into a precision ration -- creating the need for better testing before every acre of forage is harvested and stored.

Nearing harvest, forage dry matter (DM) changes daily, especially for corn silage. And, for legume haylage, proper dry matter at harvest can be the difference between disaster and profit. While several methods are available for dry matter once it’s been stored, producers can face uncertainty during the harvest window for both corn silage and haylage.

Studies tell us that cows can cope with a less-than-perfect diet for a short time; but, as days go by, a lack of accurate DM values in feeds, especially ensiled forages, will result in a decrease in performance, a fact that makes the DM of a feedstuff critical to a dairy operation.

Christopher Canale, Technology Manager with Cargill, said harvesting forage is one of the most crucial steps in DM quality.

“Many producers harvest their forage based on personal experience and the weather forecast. We can crudely estimate daily DM change by temperature, cloud cover, etc. Bottom line is that the sweet spot for whole-plant corn silage is 32 to 36 percent DM. For alfalfa silage, 40 to 45 percent maximizes intake and minimizes anti-quality components such as clostridia and butyric acid. Put simply, if alfalfa silage is too wet at harvest and in storage, it’s a recipe for disaster later,” he said. “There’s not a lot of margin for error here.”

Canale encourages dairy producers measure DM correctly and understand its role because it’s the fuel for a herd’s diet. The gap between what’s formulated and what’s fed, from a DM perspective, can be the difference between revenue profit loss or gain. While many dairymen focus on sampling the forage DM once it’s stored, or during feed out weekly, an equal amount of attention should be given to the forage during the ensiling process.

A new forage DM analysis service from Cargill, called Reveal® can help give producer’s confidence in their harvest seasons.

“Quality DM cascades from the harvest and to the formulation of diets. Guessing is dangerous,” Canale said. “This service takes away the guess work; regardless of the forage, fresh, enisled, or dry, dairymen will have access to instantaneous DM values before, during, and after harvest.”

If an acre of corn could be harvested and then tested to ensure it was at the proper moisture, producers could either hold off on the rest of their fields or feel confident their crops were in the “sweet spot” of moisture content.

The Reveal® analysis service comes with the world’s smallest micro-spectrometer, which isn’t much bigger than a matchbook, and after scanning a sample 10 times in different spots, it produces an accurate DM analysis in real-time. “The regression equations are cloud-based, so we can update data easily and quickly,” says Canale.

Canale works with large dairy operations in the East and found the Reveal® analysis helpful in advising his dairy producers. The device sends the analysis to an app on the producer or feeder’s smartphone, and the information can be text or emailed immediately. This allows nutritionists or consultants to advise ‘real-time’ in a more educated way.

“One of the dairymen I work with sent me pictures of corn silage during harvest and the corresponding DM determined from the service. Together, we tracked DM changes and agreed on the optimal time to begin chopping,” Canale said. “When we create these diets, the DM content of each ingredient must be known. We can’t forget that nutrient requirements are based on a DM intake. To think we can circumvent this process is costly. This tool allows us to better quantify the harvest window which leads to better DM quality for the cow.”

New Technology Brings Confidence During Forage Harvest

Details

  • Minneapolis, MN, USA
  • Cargill Animal Nutrition