The 2023 World Dairy Expo (WDE) just wound up with some notable repeat winners. First of all, Erbacres Snapple Shakira ET, a Holstein cow who lives in Quebec, but was bred in Illinois (just a few miles south of me here in Wisconsin) claimed her second Supreme Champion awasrd for Ferme Jacobs and partners. Shakira last won the WDE Supreme Champion award in 2021 The other championship repeat Continue Reading
Feeding Weeds, Chapter Two
In the last newsletter, we questioned why somebody at a major Agronomy Journal (back near the turn of the century!) thought Italian Ryegrass was a weed. And in that article, we documented research that established some exceptionally good reasons why this particular weed---Italian ryegrass---is a good weed to grow from an agronomic standpoint. This work was done by Dr. Dan Undersander, UW-Madison Continue Reading
My Forage Looks the Same but is Not Feeding Like Last Year!
From time-to-time, questions come up which inspire a newsletter article. The question from this title has been around longer than feed testing! (Feed-testing labs began to come on the scene in the 70s and yes, I was there!). This is just to say this problem is an age-old occurrence. Obviously, there are many reasons milk production on a modern dairy can go down but let us assume all the other Continue Reading
Sorting through All the Noise — Is Alfalfa Necessary During High Protein Prices?
Since my last article, How to Make Alfalfa Better, appeared, several seemingly compelling articles appeared in the “popular dairy press” about the necessity or at least the value of alfalfa to supply protein for relief of the high protein (soybean) prices. I want to break down these ideas on the basis of what we are doing at Forage Innovations. Let’s first look at what we think should be some Continue Reading
How to Make Alfalfa Better
Some of you might consider that this topic would not be addressed by Daniel and me. At Forage Innovations, we are not the biggest promotors of alfalfa, but when we do use more permanent rotations on farms, alfalfa becomes, many times the most viable option. As a matter of fact, to prove we know what we are talking about, in the 2021 World Dairy Expo Forage Analysis Superbowl, the Grand Continue Reading
Why Following Sorghum-Sudan with Corn is such a Good Idea
BMR Sorghum-Sudan (SxS) has been around for approximately 20 years. During this time, we began seeing its value as a quality forage for high-producing dairy cows and began moving it farther north from its typical homes of Texas and Kansas. One thing became completely clear, when especially corn, but any crop followed SxS, it seemed thenext crop did better! Could it just be the effects of ordinary Continue Reading
Should You Be Planting BMR Corn?
by Daniel Olson, Founder of Forage Innovations One of the largest breakthroughs in corn silage quality has been the identification of the Brown MidRib gene in corn and the development of hybrids that carry the gene. BMR hybrids generally have better fiber digestibility and lower levels of UNDF (undigestible fiber) then their conventional counterparts. This can allow dairy farmers to feed more Continue Reading
Why We Like Floury Corn Hybrids
by Daniel Olson & Larry Hawkins, PAS The subject of floury corn versus vitreous corn for corn silage has been a controversial one in the past. However now with some of the detractors breeding floury genetics into their silage corn, there is a greater acceptance and less controversy. Somethings that need to be considered include both yield and cost, as major considerations, but another Continue Reading
12 Advantages for Farmers to Crop Plan for 2022 During 2021
By Larry Hawkins The No.1 Factor Outside of Production That Maximizes Profits is Planning Early. I once heard a story about a fellow who rose from the mailroom to CEO and when he was asked the key to his success, he said, “I just kept showing up!” I know this was a simplistic reply and that there was plenty of planning and goal setting involved too. It is no different than establishing a Continue Reading