Jim - 12/5/2025 12:20

I've tried corn for silage on about 10 acres. I strip tilled non-gmo corn in, cultivated it and had a good crop standing. But it was very difficult trying to hire someone to chop and bag it for me when the corn was ready. No one wants to move all that equipment and manpower for just 10 acres. I think I had it done for 2 years then just went all hay.  From there I went to grazing standing non-gmo corn for a couple seasons when I still thought you needed corn to produce quality beef.

Some of my direct sale beef customers in our organic-oriented area wanted non-gmo corn fed beef but even more wanted grass-only fed beef. It took a few years to figure that out but now I find it much easier to raise my Herefords on 95% good hay with some purchased sweet feed supplement in buckets for training and special situations  like below zero weather.

Silage may be the choice for larger herds but for small operations like mine hay works well and is far cheaper than feeding mostly corn silage. Horsepower, fuel and equipment needs are far less for hay than corn silage.