A2>—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 2,1980
How
SHOEMAKERSVILLE -
There is little that dairymen
can do to control the price of
the purchased feed and
concentrates. At best, they
can shop for the best prices
and grow higher quality hay
to minimize the need to buy
soybean meal.
Where the dairyman has a
real chance to reduce those
feed costs is in the crops
grown on his own farm. The
bottom line is what it costs to
produce a ton of hay or corn
silage.
Factors affecting this
bottom line are labor and
machinery costs, land and
interest, plus seed and
chemicals. On the other
hand the yields play a vital
role since yields dictate the
cost per ton of feed
produced. Higher yields
spread out the cost of
production.
Two dairymen who have
learned how to reduce costs
and increase yields are Bill
Adams of Shoemakersville
and Ray Walton of Lmwood,
NY.
The Walton’s farm con
sists of 500 acres 400 of
which are tillable. The crops
grown are 200 acres of
alfalfa and 200 acres of corn,
50 of the 200 acres are made
into silage.
There are two major
factors which are helping the
Waltons keep feed costs
down. One is that they have
been able to eliminate the
cost of side dressing their
com with fertilizer and to
grow high protein alfalfa.
“One of the biggest
problems with trying to side
dress corn is you either have
to forego cutting the alfalfa
at the right time and lose a
lot of the protein content or
you side dress the com after
the first cutting and that
ends up pruning the com
roots
“This sets the com back a
good 2 weeks The practice
also means another trip in
the field and further soil
compaction” explained Ray
Ray prefers to cut his
alfalfa in the bud stage when
protein content is at its
highest He cuts it, windrows
it and wilts it down to bet
ween 40 percent and 45
percent moisture before its
stored m his Harvestore.
This past year’s tests
showed Walton’s alfalfa
haylage was 23 percent
protein on a dry basis. They
have been able to cut their
outside protein costs by
$13,000 this past year
because of the high quality
haylage
The average dairyman in
western New York spends 25
percent of his milk check for
outside feed costs including
protein supplements and
minerals The Waltons spent
a modest nine percent of
their milk check for outside
feed costs
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two dairymen cut costs, save nitrogen
The key to getting in the
alfalfa fields at the right
tune has been to eliminate
the sidedressing of corn.
“When we used to side
dress our com one crop or
the other would suffer.
Usually we let the com
suffer by getting into the
fields too late but that’s
because hay is a Jot more
important then the com.
Only thing is, we had higher
com production costs then
we wanted,” said Ray.
Ray figures it costs $8 to
$8.50 per acre to side dress
com. That cost mcludes
labor, fuel, equipment
maintenance and
depreciation. It does not
include the cost of the fer
tilizer itself.
He found that to do a good
job of side dressing he could
do three to four acres per
hour.
He experienced a two
week com growth setback
because the com was 12 to 24
inches high and thus the root
pruning problem. His alfalfa
is cut and brought m starting
May 20th and ends June sth.
The haylage yields run 6 to
6.5 tons per acres.
“I want to keep com silage
and gram com yields up as
high as possible too. I realize
that the whole idea of
sidedressing com is to help
control the nitrogen loss due
to leaching and
denitrification. So I tried N-
Serve and it did the job”
explamed Ray.
N-Serve is a nitrogen
stabilizer put out by Dow
Chemical Company.
Basically it slows down the
action of the ammonium
mtorgen form converting
into nitrites and nitrates.
Nitrites have a tendency to
denitrify (escape into the
atmosphere) and nitrates
can leach into the ground In
both cases this can reduce
the amount of nitrogen
fertilizer which is available
to the corn plant Cornell
University experts find 75
percent or more of the total
nitrogen applied m the fall is
lost They figure that an
average of 35 percent of
spring applied nitrogen is
lost
The loss can vary from
zero to 95 percent depending
on weather and soil con-
ditions.
“The mtrogen stabilizer
costs $4.80 per acres, but
that is a lot cheaper then
$B.OO per acre' for side
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f RD 1, Box 420
K Narvon, Pa 17555
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Myerstown PA 17067
Phone 717 866-7544
dressing plus I have
eliminated soil compaction
and root pruning” explained
Ray.
Ray put the nitrogen
stabilizer with part of his
com this year and got a nine
bushel yield mcrease per
acre.
Basically he chisel plowed
in spring, applied a tank mix
of fertilizer, N-Serve and
herbicides and promptly
incorporated it with a drag
harrow.
This was followed with
planting the com m 32 inch
rows. Ray used Sutan and
Bladex as herbicides and
Furadan as an insecticide.
200 pounds of 7-21-7 fertilizer
starter was apphed per acre
at planting time. 400 pounds
of 20-6-12 plus 40 pounds of
urea was apphed per acre
with the tank mix.
By increasing his'protein
from an average of between
16 and 17 percent up to 20 or
23 percent he has cut his
protein bill in half. Before it
ran him $26,000 per year and
now it is $13,000 per year.
This coming year Ray will
treat all 200 acres with the
nitrogen stabilizer. His
added yields he figures will
run 8 to 10 bushels more. At
$2 per bushel Ray will have
$3OOO more high moisture
com and silage for his cows.
Currently his rolling herd
average is 14,500 pounds of
milk and 3.6 percent but
terfat. His milk herd is 116
Holstems, housed m a free
stall bam.
The upshot is that the
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The Ray Walton operation cut corn growing costs, and therefore feeding costs
for the milkers, by $13,000 last year because of higher quality and better yields
Waltons have $16,000 more would cost me about $lO per
profit from their dairy acre. Also I need that time to
operation because of cutting make my hay” said Adams,
feed costs plus increasing- Adams enjoys high corn
corn yields and alfalfa yields with this year’s crop
protein yields. varying from a low of 150
Bill Adams agrees that bushels in some fields up to
side dressing can’t be 200 bushels per acre in his
justified today. ‘‘l figure that top producing fields
side dressing corn today Adams practices a con-
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ventional tillage no-till
rotation program to
minimize weed and insect
problems. He moldboard
plows two-thirds of his 300
acres of corn and no-tills the
rest.
Of the 300 acres of corn, 40
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