ajblair - 1/16/2018 06:23

I think it was the Storm Lake meeting. Maybe the system produces more then I think, but say you give up 5% corn yield, on 25 tons of silage that would be 1.25 tons. The best rotational grazers are getting 50% utilization, are you able to grow 2.5 tons more cover crop using 60" corn vs drilling cover after silage harvest?

Or on the dry corn side, give up 5% on 200bu corn 10 bu or $35. Livestock farm needs cornstalks for bedding. That much cover growth you can't bale cornstalks on those acres, $35 is 1.5 bales. If you just raise the full 200bu corn, bale 3 bales cornstalks/acre, still seed cover crops and graze your cows, you cut your fall cover/stalk grazing in 1/2 but you still should get the same grazing in the spring before planting soybeans.

On the feeding side, all the focus is on fall grazing but what do these people do with their cows during the summer? There is not enough pasture in Storm Lake, Iowa to support the cows that all the tillable acres of corn are going to feed. Planting a field of small grains that is grazed until mid summer, then replanted to sorghum sudan and grazed until october when the corn comes off should give a whole lot more tons of feed/acre than the cover grown during a corn crop?

Just thoughts that run through my head, but I'm biased because I like cows and that's probably what will break me, but I hear of all these meetings where people are trying the next best thing, and I think to myself, those people need to buy a few cows and go to a county cattlemens meeting. I just think if the conversation started with I bought some cows, now how am I going to feed them, it would make more sense then I raised all this feed, someone with cows should come look at my system. My opinion as I do put a lot of focus on water quality and soil health - Iowa farmers need more cows!

Just rambling before I head out with my bucket of hot water from the house to pour down the top of my Mirafount waterer that sits way out in the open so the cows on stalks can get a drink after a sub-zero night.