Page B—Foraging Around, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 11, 1998
JUD HEINRICHS
Dairy And Animal
Science Extension
Penn State
This spring and summer, as you are
making haylage and hay, keep in mind
some basic management principles of
good forage making.
First of all, proper maturity counts.
In fact it is likely the most important
pan of a good forage program.
Second, check dry matter. If it is
haylage, we know that there are speci
fic moisture ranges that encourage
good packing and fermentation. If we
go too wet, which is less than 30 per
cent dry matter, or too dry, greater than
60 percent dry matter, we drastically
increase the likelihood of a poor fer
mentation.
High quality silage requires a proper
fermentation to promote good intakes
and high levels of milk production.
The only way to know the dry matter of
haylage is to measure it. Use a micro
wave, oven, or koster tester —but you
must measure the first load and check
it periodically. If you are good at
squeezing a handful to monitor mois
ture, then calibrate your handful with a
few measured analyses in the micro
wave. Very few people can retain their
band squeezing calibration over the
winter or from cutting to cutting.
A next point for haylage is to check
panicle size as you chop it Nothing
you do to haylage after harvest increas
es the particle size but everything re
duces particle size post-harvest. Silo
filling, solo unloading, TMR mixers,
and feed delivery'systems all reduce
panicle size of forage.
Some systems are minimal in their
effects and some are great If moisture
raises are monitored tor haylage. it is
strtmgly suggested to try to achieve the
greatest particle length possible that
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For upright silos, you are more lim
ited that with bunker silos in terms of
acceptable length. Bunker silos still
have to have proper moisture in order
to pack longer material.
Never compromise a good fer
mentation with too long a particle size.
The problems of poor packing and
moldy, poorly fermented haylage will
far outweigh any increases that you
may gain from longer haylage particle
size.
If the maturity and moisture of the
crop arc in the proper ranges, then get
ting your cow’s physical effective fib
er from grass or legume forages in the
form of haycrop silage, balage, and
hay will usually beat the physical fiber
achieved from com silage. There arc
often more problems with fermenta
tion and fiber digestibility from long
chopper com silage supplying physical
effective fiber for your cows than if
that long fiber comes from a haycrop
source.
POTATO LEAFHOPPER-
RESISTANT ALFALFAS IN 1997
DAN UNDERSANDER
University of Wisconsin
Potato leafhopper is the insect
now causing the greatest economic
loss in alfalfa to most Wisconsin
farmers,
Resistance to this.insect has been
widely promoted as a major break
through for alfalfa. The resistance is
due to glandular hairs on the stem
that physically inhibit the ability of
leaftioppers to reproduce and may
exude a substance that kills leafhop
pers.
David Hogg, entomologist at the
University of Wisconsin, has shown
that the trait really does work-that
potato leafhoppers will fail to repro
duce on resistant plant and will
eventually die.
However, released potato leafhop
per resistant varieties have had
mixed success in the field during
1997. Why? First, we need to recog
nize that we had the highest levels
of potato leafhopper during 1997 of
any of the last 10 years. This caused
significant yield loss in both new
seedlings and established stands.
Our data would indicate that such
stress on new varieties. Historically,
we would have done all the research
first and had many answers on
release of varieties with new traits,
but now, in the rush to get new
traits to farmers, much of this infor
mation must be developed after the
release. We learned this year that
60 percent resistance or more may
be necessary for severe potato
leafhopper infestations. Most of the
varieties released last year are first
generation varieties with 20 to 40
percent resistance. The lower resis
tance will still be helpful in years of
lower infestation.
Further, the expression of the
resistance may be affected by the
environment and not always be pre
sent to the same extent.
Lastly, the resistance may be pri
marily to insect breeding and repro
duction and be less effective against
the first infestation of adults that
come from the south. This may
mean that the thresholds for spray
ing are different, and the number of
sprayings are reduced for the season
but not eliminated.
Many of the users of resistant
varieties experience some level of
potato leafhopper infestations, but
will achieve some yield benefits.
I believe as we learn more about
management of these varieties and
gradually develop better varieties,
we will find potato leafhopper resis
tance an indispensable tool in the
production of alfalfa.
Yeager Receives
PFGC Scholarship
DOYLESTOWN (Bucks Co.)
The PFGC scholarship at Delaware
Valley College was awarded to Jere
my Yeager of Chambersbuig. Jenny
grew up on a daily farm near Cham
bersbuig and has recently worked for
a crop consulting firm in Shippens
buig.
The PFGC provides this scholar
ship to a Delaware Valley College stu
dent studying forages or forage-re
lated subjects.