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Callao Missouri | specifically back rounding calves from 400-800 lbs on corn silage? I do a little custom chopping of corn silage every fall 4-500 acres with a John Deere 5820, one of my customers asked me to look into a kernel processor for next year. I don't have any experience with one although I do know how they work and they are another item spinning round for maintenance. Does this all come back to the old tug of war between feeding whole corn or ground corn to the cattle and finding whole corn in the manure argument or is there proven benefits to processing the crop going into the silo for beef cattle?
If we were to run a processor what management changes need to me made? Do you harvest the crop earlier (wetter), or do you let it dry more so as not to make grease when it goes through the processor? Do you change your length of cut? Had a man tell me to take 1/2 the knifes out if running a processor.
What about additional power and fuel requirements? Barring the cost of the attachment how much is it going to increase the cost of producing the feed by slowing down tons per hour, and increased fuel consumption?
I am looking to get some honest experience based responses. Dad and I have always put up grass silage in the spring for beef cow feed and it works well so I would have no benefit from the processor myself but I do want to produce the best quality feed product possible for my customers. Oh and one last thing I am not spending big $ to update to a newer chopper. Thanks Jon |
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Driftless SW Wisconsin | I'm no silage expert. The custom chopper/bagger folks that did my first bag of silage this past fall did have a kernal processor on their NH chopper. I have noticed very little corn in the cows' manure. You can see kernals in the silage itself but most are scored or split, etc. Almost none in the manure. Very different than the manure left by my calves grazing standing corn. I'm not sure that means the corn is better utilized or not but it certainly seems that way. Jim
Edited by Jim 3/9/2014 15:17
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SE montana | We chop all our own corn silage and have never had a kernel processor. We feed all of our silage to 7-800 lbs calves in the winter and when you look at the manure I never see any sign of corn at all. If you don't have one I wouldn't go to great lengths to get one. I updated to a newer chopper this year and still didn't get one with a processor. |
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| Wouldn't be without it. Do you think if you see corn in the manures they are actually getting the energy out of that corn? If the kernels aren't cracked or broken in half the bugs can't penetrate the endosperm on the kernel so inturn is not digested and goes out the back end. There is a whole long process that if the corn doesn't get broken down in the rumen can cause other problems but I won't bore you with that. To me it just makes your silage more efficient does it mean you don't have to use any more corn, Heck No, but I think you use less corn. We dairy here and wouldn't be without it and also backround our steers. |
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South-East South Dakota | Beef cattle silage no. Earlage yes.
No nothing of dairy. |
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Watonwan County MN | +1! I've heard that a cow can get the endosperm out of an unbroken kernel. I've checked probably 1000 cow pies and cracked whole kernels only to find the entire inside intact. |
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| The dairy guys around me all run processors. I use a NH pull type for beef cattle. What I have noticed is if you keep your knives sharp and your shear bar adjusted and rotated you will find very little whole corn in the manure. just my 2 cents. |
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Faunsdale, AL | the biggest thing that determines whether you will see a benefit from the processor is the stage of GRAIN maturity you chop your silage at. If your varieties and chopping schedule result in chopping corn that has little to no milk line left, then you (your custmers) will benefit from processing it. If you chop early, 1/2 milk line or so and high moisture, maybe no benefit. Problem is those situations that arise sometimes when you need to chop some that is too dry. Doesn't take too many acres of that stuff to make a processor worth it.
I would see if your customers will pay more for chopping with processed silage (they should) and that will pay for the unit and you'll have it for your own use too.
We went through that here, seems like many varieties these days have improved "dry down" and "stay green" traits which make it hard to get whole plant moisture right for upright silos while still chopping with milk left in the kernels. We feed dairy cows by the way. |
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Saskatchewan | For a lot less than a processor you can try a cracker plate from Kooima. We used to chop with out a processor and would always have a pile of round centre part of the cobs sorted out. After the processor there is no sorting they eat everything. Our experience with dairy.
Cracker plate is part way down the page part #K38618HP
http://www.kooimacompany.com/John%20Deere%205000%20Series.pdf |
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western iowa,by Denison | yup kracker plate-works on about 70% of the tonnage-roller mills are expensive-about $3 acre just for maintence and repair-maybe more-and takes horse power about 15% and you lose capacity-and takes more fuel
If your customer wants to pay the price just tell him $1 a ton more-on 28 ton its $28 acre more-usually scares them away! |
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Amherst WI | Whole corn vs cracked/ground is a different deal.
If you feed a heavy roughage diet you better do something to that kernel.
If you feed little roughage it doesn't seem to make much difference, in fact I think it is better whole due to less chance of acidosis.
Their rumens need to be trained for the whole corn and then they will do a pretty good job getting all the good out of it. |
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Driftless SW Wisconsin | ccjersey - 3/9/2014 18:51... If you chop early, 1/2 milk line or so and high moisture, maybe no benefit. Problem is those situations that arise sometimes when you need to chop some that is too dry. Doesn't take too many acres of that stuff to make a processor worth it... That probably explains a lot of the divergence of opinions here. My 90 day grain corn was very dry when chopped at around 140 days. The processor seems to have helped a lot in digestibility. Thank you. Jim
Edited by Jim 3/9/2014 20:48
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frederick, MD | I know nothing about beef cattle but I would think you guys would want to chop your silage drier and later for maximum starch. Which would make the kernal processor more important, I would think.
I try to let my silage dry down to 65 percent or so, but with dairy we can't sacrifice much fiber digestablity for starch. So I won't go any drier. I would think beef guys would want to go down as low as 60 percent or so.
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all over Iowa | I don't think it pays on beef cattle. Adds cost and time and I've never seen any research or closeouts that it improves performance on fed or backgrounded cattle. Dairy cows have a much faster rate of feed passage because of the volume of feed they eat, so they get more benefit out of kernel processing. Slower rate of passage in beef cattle diets allows for better digestion of non-processed kernals. |
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Kernel processor, Is it nesesery for silage fed to beef cattle?
