DHIA QUESTION: When do I start to chop com silage under drought conditions? ANSWER: This is not a ques tion that is on everyone's mind in Pennsylvania, but while in Frank lin and Berks counties, I was asked this many times. Drought conditions are wide spread in some of the heavily populated dairy counties. Com that was considered the best for that time of year six weeks ago is now looking like mature, mid-fall com except for the obvi ous lack of grain and reduction in size. • Weight-Tronix • Bucket Elevators • Feed Bins Few MID" ', stirring Systems 1 • We! Tanks •Transport Augers • Utility Augers ‘Gram Bins Cali Us For Your Grain Dryer Service Work - 24 Hour Service... School Trained Technicians MODEL 40 HIGH CAPACITY GRAIN UNLOADER GRAIN CLEANER 3,000 bu/hr. capacity STIRRING ★Full Line Parts Dept.* ★Sell, Service & Install* • B • t ' The actual answer to the ques tion should be the same as com sil age harvesting in normal years. Moisture of the chopped whole plant should be the guide as to when harvesting should begin. Guidelines such as milk content, sugar lines, and others are often associated with maturity levels, but they are still dependent on the moisture level for proper ensiling. Normal years will see most measures of com maturity follow ing moisture levels. Areas that are suffering most from this year’s drought will not be able to judge by com grain maturity levels. &£ E/VIHERR g (gig) rffisnv** AUTOMATIC BATCH OR CONTINUOUS FLOW GRAIN DRYERS o o Westfield Grain Augers BUY NOW, SAVE NOW 6 MONTHS NO INTEREST 8” & 10" Transport Augers (In Stock) Rt. 272 South 14 Herrville Road Willow Street, PA 17584 Ph. 717-464-3321 or Toll Free 800-732-0053 Mon.-Frl. 6:30 am to 8 pm Sat. 7:30 am to 6 pm Sun. Closed Places that have some grain may not be able to wait until it gets to dent stage for fear that moisture needed for ensiling will be gone. Proper moisture for com silage is somewhere between 63 and 68 percent What is important to remember is that the presence of carbohy drates that comes mostly from the grain actually aids in the fermenta tion process. • Depending on the level of grain development, we may need to use extra precaution to aid in the fer mentation process. silage in the past down to 58 and 60 percent moisture, this may not be the year to try to repeat it. We may also want to consider using some additives to aid fer mentation even though they may not have been needed in the past Some of the farms that I visited had already checked moisture and it was down to 68 percent They arc readying themselves for harvest now. Special attention should be paid to standards concerning the length of cut. The com will be different enough that the knife setting should be evaluated so the particle size is not too small. Wctnay need to start a bit higher • Air Drying System* • Gram Dryers • Parts & Motors The Competitive Edge “Smart system" eliminates guesswork Gram Dryer On Display at Ag Progress aUCE Hardware UPS Shipping Point 8/21 If we were successful with com Lancaster Farming Web Site www.lancuterfanning.com cot* 0 * 0 Agriculture - Residential - Commercial • Buildings • Basement • Floors • Retaining Walls • Footer • NRCS Approved Tank Designs • All Types Of Flat Work "h'w’' ::V ; A y. -*■ '\- ,-vM ■ '.\4 iU s' -*-U W 1-" CALL FOR FREE ESTIMATES CONTACT AND SEE HOW AFFORDABLE ROY SENSENIG CONCRETE WALLS CAN BE 717-355-0726 Authorized Dealer For Ke' E) [E) E fl E CONCRETE IT O IE WALLS, INC. than normal moisture levels because harvest time will be longer in many cases because more acres will be needed for the same tonnage. These extra acres needed for our total tons will have to be hauled from farther away. Some thought about our current ability to get the job done in the normal amount of time may warrant considering extra labor for the harvest season. We may want to choose a cus tom harvester with bigger equip ment in order to get the crop in on time. Innovative Farming (Continued from Page A3O) and October by using forage crops. “My whole way of farming really changes my work load,” he said. “I kind of get a vacation.” Along with time to spare, Louis finds his grazing practices give the cows more time to graze as well. “This spring I planted a small amount of rye in standing sod and had 4 to 5 inches up before the grass shown through,” he said. “I was grazing on that rye a week earlier that on the grass. We had the cows out grazing around the middle of April, when most farmers are never out before May.” In an effort to promote graz ing, Louis will use the gathering to allow other farmers to visit his 20 acres of com, planted for grazing, an eight-acre pasture of turnips, and his low-cost swing over milking parlor. “A lot of people have done a 65’ Diameter Circular Manure Storage 531 Hollander Rd., New Holland, PA 17557 Lancaster ■arm! As a last thought, I would like to mention that those who are under these conditions need to plan now for grain needs. Not only will you need to purch ase mote grain than you did in the past, but you will probably need to feed more grain per head. This is due to the fact that the com silage that is made will in many cases be more like grass silage. Measures of energy content will most certainly be lowered. Good com silage with energy content of 65 meal or higher may only top out at SO meal. This will present new chal lenges in feeding our cows. I sug gest working out some projected diets using estimates of what we might expect for feed quality and do some planning now to meet the needs of what is sure to be a chal lenging year. good job starting off with a graz ing program, but they haven’t continued with it,” he said. “I encourage my fellow farmers to visit with me on the 27th to hear about my experiences. Hopefully, I will have ideas that will work for other grazers.” Incorporating unique farm ing techniques is nothing new for the Hawley family. They began intensive grazing 10 years ago and were recognized in 1998 for their grazing prac tices by the Pennsylvania Forage and Grassland Council, as well as Lancaster Farming. Their farm has also been recog nized as a Dairy of Distinction. Louis is an active board mem ber of the Pennsylvania Dairy Promotion Program and strives to uphold his philosophy of low cost farming. For more informa tion, or to register for the open house, call Louis Hawley at (717) 278-2972. 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