“We have started to see some corn being chopped for silage and I expect we will see much more than usual as pastures and hay ground have dried up and farmers are looking for alternatives,” Northey said. “The drought has been especially tough on livestock farmers and we hope the directory continues to be a resource as farmers seek additional feed sources for their animals.”

To learn more or see the full announcement go to IDALS.

While PEAQ provides an estimate of standing crop quality in the field, you still have to adjust for harvest loss. Under the best conditions, 10 to 20% of the forage dry matter, or about 15 RFV units for haylage, and about 25 RFV units for hay, will be lost at harvest. Therefore, to end up with 150 RFV alfalfa, it is recommended to harvest when PEAQ measurements predict 165 to 175 RFV for the standing forage.

To learn more about what PEAQ is, or to see what the PEAQ scores are for northeast Iowa, go to the PEAQ monitoring page.

Despite three inches of wet heavy snow yesterday morning, the fall seeded triticale, oats and turnips Don Stickle planted still stood up well waiting for cows to graze them this winter. Don drilled this field on September 10, after chopping the corn. He used 43 pounds of spring triticale, 6 pounds of Pasja hybrid turnips, and 1 ¼ bushel of oats, at a cost of $30/ac. There was easily more than 12” of growth on November 9, which we estimated to be at least a ton or more per acre. Cows will be turned into this field later in the season, as they just moved into a similar field yesterday. This forage is very high in moisture and would benefit from additional dry matter such as corn stalks or mature hay to slow down the passage rate through the gut, but is highly nutritious.

Cover crops have grown in interest recently for it’s value to soil structure and erosion control. But cover crops also provide a valuable feed alternative for cattle provided it gets seeded early enough to get fall growth. Seeding cover crops behind chopped corn or small grain harvest seems to provide the most time for fall growth, although aerial seeding has also been used to seed into standing soybean fields.

Two additional field days on grazing fall seeded forages will be held next week. November 15, at 1:00 pm we will be at Al Welter’s north of Onslow, and November 17, at 1:00 pm at Ken Birker’s north of Vinton. Al has a corn field that has been corn followed by fall seeded annuals for over 25 years, where they graze part of it in the fall and winter, and the remainder of the field is grazed early in the spring where the cows can calve on fresh green grass. Al has used combinations of annual cereal grasses with winter rye and sometimes brassicas such as turnips. The annual cereals, usually oats or triticale, will die through the winter with the freezing temps, but the cereal rye will overwinter and produce a lush green forage very early next spring. Ken has used oats for fall grazing for many years, with the advantage of not having to kill the grass next spring. He also seeded Teff grass and sorghumxsudangrass this summer for additional forage for the cows. For directions to either site check out our Benton County home page.

One of the biggest variables this year is forage quality. We are seeing very wide ranges on the energy value of hays tested through the Iowa Beef Center forage testing project. For example, the grass-legume hay samples averaged 56% TDN, but they ranged from a low of 48% to a high of 82%. If we balance for the average of the grass-legume hays we are underfeeding those cows fed the 48% TDN hay and are overfeeding the cows receiving the 82% TDN hay, and neither of those situations are good for the cow! The protein situation is also variable with the average of 13% CP but a range from 8 to 21% CP. On average these hays will meet or exceed the crude protein requirement of gestating cows; however the cows fed the 8% CP hay will need protein supplementation.

Bottom line? Test your hay to determine the nutrient content before balancing winter cow rations. Talk to your county Extension office or Extension Beef Specialist for more information or help. Then, we can balance a ration to meet your cow’s needs.

This free electronic spreadsheet can compare up to eight alternatives at a time. While storing bales on bare ground with no cover is the least cost method, it also results in the most storage loss. Other methods compared include outdoor uncovered storage on gravel or pallets, outdoor covered storage, storage under a roof, and storage in a new or existing building.”

Some of the costs considered in the analysis are initial investments in storage structure, tarps, gravel and pallets are amortized over their individual expected lives. Annual costs such as repairs, insurance and property taxes are part of the spreadsheet, as are estimated labor costs for storing and feeding the hay. And, the estimated value of spoilage losses under each system is considered.

Users need to enter the expected volume of hay to be produced or needed, current hay prices and the size of bales. For each method, a total annual cost is calculated, which includes spoilage losses and the tons of hay available to feed or sell.

The Excel®-based spreadsheet “Hay Storage Cost Comparison” is available for viewing and download.