Thompsontown, Pennsylvania | I know this has been hashed around before, but with grain and milk prices ever changing, philosophies, facts and opinions are ever changing. A couple years ago, i had a banker tell me to fire my nutritionist if he ever suggested feeding more hay/haylage. Bankers around here loved corn silage, cheap, consistent feed, blah blah blah, you know the story....only problem even then was, most high cs rations needed a fair amount of soluble protein, bean meal, blood meal etc.....not as big of a problem as it is now with the high cost of all things related to bean price. I know there are true benefits to feeding a high-er corn silage ration, mainly the nfc in corn silage feeds the rumen bugs, which make protein allowing you to run an overall lower crude protein ration. The main problem i see is this, it takes a fair number of acres to grow the large amount of corn silage I need when running a high cs ration, county average in this area is probably closer to 15 ton/acre, where as i have averaged around 18.5-19 on a 4 year average, including growing some bmr....i am on limited acres, where land is tight and renting additonal land would mean out bidding a neighbor and thus being the new neighborhood A-hole...not much of an option.....and no matter what you can't grow bean meal.....HOWEVER, you can grow more crude protein for the ration, by growing more haylage, feeding high-er haylage ration and having homegrown shelled corn on hand to feed....and for whatever reason, for me, on my landbase, this seems easier to simulate than being able to grow enough beans, corn and/or wheat to sell, to offset the amount of bean/blood meal i would need to buy, figured it could save me $25k of feed bill on 70 cows next year, that is gross, i do realize that there will be a little more fuel bought, machinery repairs, and probably fertilizer for the alfalfa to be able to do this but definately not 25k ....this brings me to my discussions with the banker....different banker from story above, same philosophy as previous said banker, atleast he used to have the same philosophy.....now he says the guys he sees making the most on milk are feeding more haylage, their own corn, and minimizing their grain purchases......keep in mind this is strictly cash flow based....if you figure the value of what we are feeding vs. selling it, nothing works out either way but you do what you have to.....even the banker said, the guys that are making the most sold the darn cows and are selling grain lol......any thoughts appreciated!! Kyle
Edit: right now i am feeding around 30 dm pounds of corn silage, 5 of hay....so i can go either way, just trying to find the best way to make money milking cows on 120 acres.....
Also on a side not, the later banker told me thursday, he is seeing costs of production ranging typically from a low of $16.50 (mine fell in the low side of this range) to $18/cwt, an average around $20, with a fair number of guys cranking out milk costing them 22-$25/cwt to produce.....production costs based, not even accounting for any prices of grain/forage they were feeding on the open market
Edited by kylesupplee 12/16/2012 18:26
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High haylage vs. High corn silage dairy rations/cost of productions on limited acres
