2019 was a tough year for virtually every farm, and when spring came, we discovered a near total winterkill of our alfalfa. We harvested the dandelions and then evaluated our options. We had heard about the “cocktail mix” that Daniel Olson of Forage Innovations designed but it takes a real disaster to pull the trigger. I called and drilled the cocktail mix over all our winter killed alfalfa fields. The feed turned out to be super and we harvested nearly 15 tons of silage per acre over 3 cuttings after the 1st cutting of alfalfa and weeds. We did not have to buy any forage or forage extenders for the whole year.
The crop gave us a place to go with manure in September and then a tremendous high-quality crop of Italian Ryegrass and clover in October. This was in spite of having about ten nights of frost!
The energy numbers on the 3rd crop were 36% NDF, 89% NDFD30 , 3% uNDF240, and 274 RFQ
About Legacy Farms: Located in Shell Lake, WI, Reuben Schloneger, his three brothers along with their parents’ milk 1275 Holsteins with 1100 of them being registered. The herd has a 32,000 RHA with butterfat running 4.1 to 4.3 and proteins at 3.1 to 3.2. They recently switched back to 2X milking to save on labor and stress and have seen only a small difference in energy corrected milk ECM. The cows seem to have a more optimum time budget for resting, eating, and drinking.