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Double Cropping Winter And Summer Annuals For Better Feed, Better Soil, And Better Manure Management

At Dutch Meadows Dairy in Clinton County, Tony Jandernoa is integrating triticale, a winter annual forage, and sudangrass, a summer annual forage in his cropping system to feed his 1,500 cow herd. Triticale is a wheat/rye hybrid that makes excellent chopped silage for high producing dairy cows when harvested at the flag leaf stage, or a highly palatable and high-yielding feed for dry cows and young stock when harvested later in the boot or soft dough stage of growth. So far, the best fit for these forage crops at the Dutch Meadow Dairy is to drill triticale as soon as the corn silage comes off. An ideal time to seed date triticale is 10- to 14-days earlier than the best time for wheat, typically the first part of September in much of mid-Michigan. When the crop is harvested in mid- to late May in the early boot stage it yields about 6-8 tons per acre of 65 percent moisture silage, an ideal addition to the ration for close-up cows, dry cows and heifers. After the triticale is harvested the goal is to seed sudangrass with a target silage harvest yield of about 5 tons per acre in early August so a new alfalfa seeding is in by August 15.
 
Adding a winter annual in the cropping system provides many benefits beyond feed production: it keeps the ground covered and an active root system throughout the year, builds soil structure and health, reduces runoff and nutrient loss to the environment, improves manure nutrient cycling and use, and can spread out the crop harvest and planting workload. However, new opportunities can present new challenges for managing manure and the cropping system.
 
You can find out more about managing manure and the cropping system at the Dutch Meadows Dairy at the 2015 Tour: What’s New with Poo on August 18. The day-long tour will begin at Providence Agriculture, 9650 Roosevelt Rd, Carson City and include bus stops featuring state-of-the-art manure separation technologies, treatment and handling, harvestable buffers and managing manure and cover crops for feed.
 

Trending Video

Back On The Fields | Cutting Alfalfa Hay| Crop Talk

Video: Back On The Fields | Cutting Alfalfa Hay| Crop Talk

We are cutting our second-cut alfalfa hay! Our machinery hasn't been repaired, but the weather is clear, so we take our opportunity to get back on the fields making hay. The alfalfa crop was ready to harvest, and any delays would result in poor quality feed for our sheep, so we decided to go ahead and get that mower rolling. We have a little crop talk about how we cut the hay with our John Deere hydrostatic mower, how we lay the hay out flat in rows to help it dry quicker, and how the two different plantings in that hay field have developed at varying rates and densities. We discuss the quality of the alfalfa hay and show how differing percentages of grasses mixed in with the alfalfa make a difference in the volume of the hay harvested. Hay is the primary feed source on our sheep farm. Getting it done just right is imperative for sheep farming, sheep health, and sheep care. Quality feed sets the stage for producing productive and profitable sheep and allows for feeding throughout the winter season when pasture grazing is no longer an option for those farmers raising sheep in cold climates such as Canada. While in the hay field, we also have a look at the adjacent corn crop and marvel at how well it has developed in such a short period of time.