Lateral thinking leads to forage gains

WISCONSIN DELLS, Wis. — Forages are the basis of rations for dairy cows, the fuel that keeps them running at peak performance. Maximizing quality while harvesting large quantities of forages is at the top of many dairy farmers’ lists.

Three forage producers — Tom Kestell of Ever-Green-View in Waldo; Mark Hockel of Eagle Ag Inc. in Windom, Minnesota, and Dan Miller of Valley Angus Farm in Spring Valley, Minnesota — shared their forage tips at the Midwest Forage Association Symposium Feb. 19 in Wisconsin Dells.

“Variety selection is one of the most important things,” Hockel said. “Tillage, soil type and identifying the varieties that do best on your farm will move that needle the most.”

Hockel, who works for Riverview LLP and their contract growers as their master agronomist, said they have implemented a 2-tier testing system to evaluate seed varieties.

“We hired a research company that does small-plot testing and we do a plot in each of our six regions,” Hockel explained. “The second year we take the best varieties from those tests and do full-length strip-plots, a quarter to half mile long, to see how those results compare to the first year. We can see if they stand and yield well two years in a row.”

A willingness to think outside the box when it comes to forages has benefited Kestell throughout his career.

“We farm in Sheboygan County and are greatly affected by Lake Michigan,” Kestell said. “We have to think about maturities and timing for everything, as forage is the No. 1 thing in our diet.”

Nearly a decade ago, Kestell moved to a 34-inch cut for his corn silage.

“It sounds radical; my nutritionist called it an epiphany,” Kestell said. “I decided we were just hauling undigestible materials into the cows and then hauling it back out in manure, so why not just leave it in the fields in the first place? It’s a practice we think has changed our ration more than any other thing and has been one of the largest profit-adders to our operation.”

Kestell said the practice needs to be approached thoughtfully, since most of the moisture is in the bottom of the plant. He recommends starting silage a little wetter because it will dry quickly.

“Our samples in 2023 averaged about 50% starch, almost the same as snaplage, and we didn’t notice a big tonnage drop,” Kestell said. “We checked what the stubble had — the adjusted crude protein and the starch were 3%, the acid detergent fiber was 44 and the neutral detergent fiber 67. We might be leaving a few tons in the field, but it’s not the nutrients we’re leaving.”

Kestell has also changed his thinking on alfalfa.

“We have started doing almost exclusive fall seeding,” Kestell said. “We get our wheat crop and the straw (first). Then, we plant as a cover crop — but with the future of next year in mind — the alfalfa. We don’t see near the weed pressure, because we spray our wheat fields, and we aren’t planting into wet soils at that point.”

Kestell said an increased seeding rate makes sense, as well.

“A couple of pounds of alfalfa will cost under $20 per acre,” Kestell said. “That’s a small investment into having a superior stand. I came home one afternoon and told my wife I had just had a religious experience cutting hay, it was the most perfect combination of quality and quantity I had ever seen in my life. It tested 31.6 protein and 213 relative feed quality. I’m sold on fall seeding.”

Kestell tries to seed as soon after the first of August as possible, giving him the ability to find field failures in the fall so he can reseed those areas early in the spring.

The use of cover crops in general has been a game-changer for Miller’s farm, with the added bonus of grazing.

“We had over 200 acres put in with a drone and another 400 no-tilled in, generally winter rye, but some camelina because, especially with the drone, you can get more seed on per acre, fast,” Miller said. “We can get it in, harvest it and still do a fair amount of grazing. Because of grazing cover crops, after a winter like this year, I still have the majority of my hay crop available.”

For Kestell, the proximity of his farm to Lake Michigan has impeded his ability to make quality dry hay. His solution was to make baleage instead.

“You can have a perfectly wonderful drying day, but if the wind switches to off the lake, you’re done making hay for the day — it can drop 20 degrees and the moisture goes up,” Kestell said. “Baleage gives some leeway, you can make it from 40% to almost 60% with really good results. It speeds up the harvest and we get a consistent, high-quality product.”

Kestell said the balage is highly palatable.

“There is almost zero waste; they love it,” Kestell said. “The leaves stay on the plant, they’re not falling off in the manger.”

Lengthening the window between cuttings for the Riverview contract growers has allowed Hockel to exceed the farm’s quality goals, without negatively affecting tonnage.

“When I came to Riverview in 2015, they had been on a 22-day cutting schedule, averaging about 150-RFQ, but they wanted to get to 160,” Hockel said. “The first year we started moving to HarvXtra to widen that window. We saw a benefit — there’s a lot to be said for giving that alfalfa extra time to replenish those root reserves.”

By 2022, that, combined with the implementation of 7.5-inch rows, gave Hockel better stand establishment, reaching a 28-day cutting schedule and all but one site with a 175-RFQ.

“Adding six extra days is about 125-150 pounds of dry matter per day, which, calculated on today’s value of alfalfa, is about $180 per acre,” Hockel said. “The longer cut schedule has increased the lifespan of our alfalfa. We are now seeing those fields going six years commonly. Last year a 5-year stand was our top-yielding stand ever.”