Forage Profile: Bill Ciolkosz

Describe your farm and facilities. We are a multi-generational dairy farm. We have a 4-row freestall barn with a double-10 parlor. We raise our own replacements.

What forages do you harvest? We harvest haylage, grass hay, corn silage, dry and high-moisture corn, food-grade beans and regular beans.

How many acres of crops do you raise? We farm 1,300 acres.

Describe the rations for your livestock. We have one ration right now for our milk cows. It is 60% corn silage and 40% haylage, with some high-moisture corn, distillers’ grain, soybean oil meal and minerals to balance it. We have been feeding whey protein concentrate for about three years. That has been huge for butterfat; we run about 4.5-4.7% butterfat and 3.5-3.6% protein. Our dry cow ration is mostly dry grass hay with a little bit of corn silage in it, as well as minerals. The heifers will get the manger refusals with haylage, corn silage and dry hay.

What quality and quantity do you harvest of each crop? We like to cut pre-bud to bud stage; we cut about every 28-30 days. I like to have my haylage between 65% and 68% moisture. We do drive-over piles, but with the way we feed and the size of our piles, it packs really well at that moisture, and we can always keep up facing. I like to keep our protein at 20% or better, with at least 170-180 relative feed quality, but I like to push 200 and higher. The highest quality alfalfa we can put up saves us on the protein bill. We had the grand champion alfalfa haylage for the World Forage Analysis Superbowl last year, and that was a 238 RFQ from a fourth-crop sample.

Describe your harvesting techniques for alfalfa and corn silage. We only do about 180 acres of alfalfa for each crop of haylage, and we do four crops. We have a triple-mower, and I do all my own cutting. Then, we have a custom crew come in to chop, and I do the piling. If I can have the cutting done by noon, we will merge. I will merge until the dew starts coming on and quit then. Those windrows will stay at almost the same moisture for like eight hours the next day. The tops will get a little crispy, but inside that windrow is perfect feed. If you merge when it is ready, you do not have to be in a hurry to chop.

We have custom-chopped corn silage, so I will tell them when my samples are down at 68% and they will come in and we can get about 140-170 acres of corn chopped in about 18-24 hours. We start one day, finish up the next and get it covered right away. The most important thing is limiting the time the piles are exposed to air.

What techniques do you use to store, manage and feed your forages? We use drive-over piles and pack with a tractor and blade. We size our piles according to how much we can feed off the face of them. I think piles should be longer rather than higher; I wish mine was another 100 feet longer. We put tires and gravel bags on top of our piles, on the splices, and seal the edges all the way around with sand. We do not cover them completely with tires because our piles are fairly small.

      When I make my haylage piles, I like to blend them. I will put a full layer of first crop down, even if it is just two or three feet high. Then, I will come back with a second crop on top of it. We will pull the tarp back in the morning when we start chopping and pull it back and recover it when we are done. It is like having the same feed for 10-11 months straight, and more consistent feed makes more milk. If the crops are separated, it seems like you’re always trying to adjust the ration to try and keep peak milk. It has been a lot easier to balance since I started doing this, and the cows seem happier with the consistency.

How does quality forages play in the production goals for your herd? Quality forage is a key to reaching our production goals. Since we have started putting up forages as we do, it has been what has really pushed our production up. We are at a rolling herd average of 30,000 pounds of milk, with 91-93 pounds of milk per day pretty consistently. It all comes from the forage; if you can put your forages in right, it is a lot easier for the nutritionist to balance the rations to make the cows milk. My whole goal is to try and be the most efficient that we can — in milk production, labor and quality forages. Production efficiency allows me to stay smaller, keeping my labor requirements more manageable. That is what made us decide to build the freestall barn and parlor and leave the tie-stall barn; it was taking a toll on me, on the cows and on milk production.

What management or harvesting techniques have you changed that have made a notable difference in forage quality? We have been using an inoculant for quite a few years and switched to Lallemand Inc. a few years ago. That feed affects everything that happens on our farm, from production to animal health and reproduction. One thing I have learned is that, when you fill your water up in the morning and put it in the chopper, everybody throws ice bags inside your cooler to keep the inoculant cool; the bacteria starts to die off at 80 degrees. But, when they are out there and need to reload with inoculant, they take the water right out of the chopper and dump it in that cooler. Sometimes that water is actually a hundred degrees or better, and you are killing the bacteria. This year, we are going to try to take them cold water to mix the inoculant with, for the sake of getting more out of our inoculant.

Describe a challenge you overcame in reaching your forage quality goals. One I have not overcome is the weather; that is by far the trickiest part of all. I used to chop everything myself, but I now need somebody to merge, somebody to chop and somebody to pile. Getting the triple mower and cutting everything myself gives me the opportunity to see everything going on and evaluate the fields. Two springs ago, we had alfalfa weevils. I have never had them in my life. I saw a gray patch on top of a hill and called my agronomist. We were able to get the hay done quickly and then spray and fertilize, keeping the damage minimal.