To counter escalating input costs, Herrington Farms Inc. focuses on three things: wringing every possible ounce of milk from their dairy herd, cost-conscious management decisions and diversifying their income stream. 

“We’re milking over 700 cows, and they’re each averaging more than 102 pounds of milk per day with great components – around 4% butterfat and 3.5% protein,” says Jason Herrington, a fourth-generation dairy producer in Troy, New York. “The higher the quality of our forages, the more the cows make and the less we have to spend on grain or other additives, such as canola or wheat middlings.”

The Herrington family crops 2,000 acres on a combination of owned and rented land. Half of the acreage is planted to corn with about 400 acres each of BMR (brown midrib) and another silage hybrid. The remaining 200 acres are harvested for grain. The balance of the land is used to grow 400 acres each of alfalfa and alfalfa-grass mixtures and 200 acres of grass. All alfalfa and grasses are made into haylage.

The family favors BMR corn silage because of its high digestibility and the amount of milk it produces. BMR hybrids have less lignin content in the stalks, so it’s easier for cows to digest and achieve higher milk production. 

“Our BMR yields 21 tons per acre, while the other yields 26 tons per acre, so we plant both to strike a balance between milk production and yield,” Herrington says. “We would love to plant more BMR, but cropland is just too difficult to come by in this area.”

The family received affirmation last fall that it’s on the right track when it took home the top prize from the 2021 World’s Forage Analysis Superbowl with a sample of BMR corn silage. 

Samples submitted to the contest are analyzed by near infrared technology (NIR) and sorted by quality based on milk per ton for the two corn silage categories in the competition and relative forage quality (RFQ) for the other six categories. Finalists for each category are judged by the University of Wisconsin personnel based on visual judging criteria. Herrington Farm’s BMR sample had a neutral detergent fiber (NDF) of 34.5% and a milk-per-ton score of 4,202. It was named the 2021 Grand Prize winner among all the 343 entries in the competition held each fall at the World Dairy Expo (WDE) in Madison, Wisconsin. 

Jason Herrington proudly displays their award and says he appreciates the partnership with good equipment dealers, agronomists, employees and family relations and credits their forage program success to everyone working together toward the same goals. Photos courtesy of New Holland Agriculture.

Jason Herrington represented Herrington Farms at WDE to accept the honor and a check for $2,500. The family had never entered the contest before but were encouraged by their nutritionist to give it a shot. “My first reaction was ‘No way,’” Herrington recalls. “But he persisted, saying he sees a lot of corn silage samples and that ours looked like a strong contender.”

BMR hybrids require careful harvest management of moisture, chop length and kernel processing to ensure the greatest nutritional impact. “Looking back, we had a phenomenal growing year in 2020 to produce that sample,” Herrington says. “Our crew did a great job. Harvest went smoothly and the silage was put up at the perfect time.”

The Herrington Farm corporation consists of Jason, along with his sister Jessica; their 81-year-old father, Kenny; and 71-year-old Uncle Phil. Fourteen employees round out the workforce.

Ken and Jason Herrington examine the TMR from the bunk at Herrington Farms.

“We’ve got a great team here. Everyone puts in extra hours getting the crops planted and harvested on time, and that consistency pays off,” says Herrington.

The Herringtons rely on the specialists in the crop chemical, dairy nutrition, feed, equipment and seed industries to keep their farm running smoothly and profitably. “They’ve put our operation under their wings,” Herrington says. “We’re progressive, but we’re also trying to be cost-conscious and they understand that.”

To save money, Herrington Farms hauls their purchased commodities, including canola, wheat middlings and a protein mix made with waste byproducts, from a local feed mill. They also haul one tractor-trailer load of milk per day to the milk processing plant.

Cow manure is stored on the farm in a lagoon with a 3-million-ton capacity. Some fluids from the lagoon are injected or top-dressed on alfalfa, but more is injected in the cornfields after harvest. Herrington notes, “We prefer to inject in the fall versus spring, but there’s not always enough time to get it all done.”

The farm lies in the Tomhannock Reservoir watershed, which supplies water to nearby Albany, Saratoga Springs and Schenectady. “Because of our close proximity to those cities, we have to do limited spreading, which leaves us with a lot of manure to handle,” Herrington says.

To solve that dilemma, the family put a manure separator in about 10 years ago that divides the liquids from the solids. Half of the solids are composted and marketed as-is or mixed with soils and sold as topsoil. “It helps our concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) program and brings in some revenue at the same time,” Herrington says.