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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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Kernel processor, Is it nesesery for silage fed to beef cattle?
