Challenging growing conditions have created potential shortages in silage stocks over the past few years, which has sparked interest in putting up alternative silage crops, some more creative than others.

The 2019 corn silage season was as challenging as last year, mainly due to excessive precipitation – including flooding in some areas – leading to heavy, saturated soils.

Despite producers’ best efforts, sometimes silage will succumb to yeasts, molds and other microbes that can cause spoilage. Heating, mold growth or mustiness are all signs the silage is aerobically unstable. The losses due to unstable silage can be huge: The most highly digestible nutrients go first, and then the tonnage of feed available starts to really drop.

Managers and owners often have the tough decision of weighing what expenses must be reduced while still increasing profit and, above all, how to be most efficient. The initial impulse may be to cut some costs temporarily, but this may lead to long-term consequences, especially in terms of milk peak, persistence and total yield.

This 2018 forage season was again a challenging one for producers across North America. In some areas, there were weeks of heavy precipitation, leading to saturated soils and even flooding. Other parts of the region had an uncharacteristically cool spring, with some sown crops needing replanting, which in turn led to a late harvest.

The first edition of the International Silage Conference (ISC) in 1972 – called “Silage Seminar” – was held in Edinburgh and was open exclusively to British researchers. The conference has since evolved and is now held every three years and hosted by various countries throughout the world.

Recently, on an online forum, someone asked how much nitrogen everyone was applying on their triticale fields to get an idea of what application rate to use.

As we get into the warmer weather, dairy producers and their consultants should be on the lookout for subtle changes in cow behavior, along with changes in forage and feedbunk stability. These changes are a result of increases in both the environmental temperature and relative humidity, as measured by the temperature-humidity index (THI).