DB—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 19,1984
Conditioner management boosts haylage quality
NEW HOLLAND - Every dollar
off the cost of producing a hundred
pounds of milk is the same as
getting an extra dollar in the milk
check. Cutting production cost to
the bone is critical now that milk
prices are under pressure.
Haylage and high moisture ground
ear corn are helping many to lower
feed costs.
Forage management is the place
most dairymen can find their best
chances of an earnings boost.
Especially haylage. Saving more
of what is grown, storing it and
feeding it to get the largest
production at lowest cost is the aim
everywhere. But there’s still a lot
of room for improvement, ac
cording to Joe Weicksel of Sperry
New Holland. Too many dairymen
aren’t getting nearly full value
from their crop, he says.
Cutting the crop when it’s tender
and very digestible is the first step.
Conditioner management is
especially important. It’s really a
IH conditioners
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key item in converting legumes
and grass into milk, says Weicksel,
who is product manager for hay
tools at Sperry New Holland.
For haylage, it’s important to
use enough roll pressure to have
the plant stems bruised every few
inches but not enough to break the
leaves loose from the plant stems.
The leaves should be fastened on
the stem when the plant comes out
of the conditioner. Losses will be
excessive, otherwise. Drying will
be more uniform when the plant is
neither over or under-conditioned.
This is important for fermentation
in the silo.
Flail-type conditioners that work
in grass are usually too aggressive
for alfalfa and clover, says
Weicksel, because of the larger
leaf loss they cause. Rubber faced
roll-type conditioners were
designed for alfalfa and are still
the most effective for the crop, he
notes.
The moisture considerations
(Continued from Page D 6)
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////
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NOSALES
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seem to be more important than
thought a few years ago. The
natural moisture inside the plant
seems to support a more desirable
fermentation than water added
externally if the crop gets too dry
in the windrow. Waiting for the
dew to remoisten the leaves in the
evening when haylage has gotten
too dry isn’t fully satisfactory.
When hay has gotten too dry in
the windrow for good haylage it is
probably best to bale it for hay,
says Weicksel.
The most favored moisture
content ranges are 45 to 65%
(moisture). When the crop dries
under 45% moisture (55%
drymatter) baling for hay is
probably advisable instead of
chopping for the silo.
Moisture contents can be a bit
higher if you store haylage in a
conventional silo. And perhaps a
bit lower if you use sealed, or
oxygen-limiting silos. Large
diameter silos and wide, deep
bunkers may benefit from slightly
wetter material because heat of
the fermentation process has to be
conducted to the outside before the
silage can cool down.
Managing the cutting and
conditioning for chopping in a
narrow moisture range isn’t a
problem if you adjust the windrow
shields for varying width swaths or
windrows. By depositing the crop
in a wide swath at the start, you speed
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Conditioner management is a key to making quality
haylage.
up the wilting process so you
can start chopping sooner. Then if
you narrow the windrows as
mowing progresses you will slow
the wilting so those windrows
won’t be too dry before you can get
to them with the harvester. You
put more crop into the silo at a
more uniform moisture content.
Rake management deserves
careful thought, too according to
Weicksel. Those first passes
around the field that were
deposited in a wide swath for
qnif'Vpr wilting will need raking
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one taut every link Each
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point The 4-tooth drive
sprocket reduces stress on
the drive unit
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t *
before chopping to narrow them
enough for the windrow pickup ot
the forage harvester. But raking
should be minimized to reduce leaf
loss.
Raking within about a day and a
half after a rain is advised if ram
stalls your haylage operation. Ram
on scarcely wilted windrows
doesn’t damage the crop as much
as rain on nearly dried crop. But
windrows should be turned to
prevent the start of mold growth on
the bottom of the windrow.
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