Anderson is a senior research associate and Xue-Feng Ma is an assistant professor at the Noble Research Institute, Ardmore, Okla.Small grains are often grazed during vegetative stages or harvested as green silage, baleage, or dry hay. It is important to select the right crop or variety to fit an operation. Understanding environmental conditions and soil characteristics of the farm are helpful in selecting a proper crop. In general, rye is better suited for sandy soils...

The San Joaquin Valley (SJV) of California is home to about 1.7 million lactating dairy cows, and that number of cows needs a lot of forage...

Coming upon nearly 100 years of silage science, researchers and farmers have long recognized that successful fermentation will preserve forage and grain long into the future...

Availability of high-quality forages to dairy cattle is essential to maintaining rumen health and animal production. Although corn silage is the predominant forage used to feed dairy cows in the United States...

How forage particle size and NDF digestibility interact to affect dry matter intake (DMI) and milk yield is a hot topic among dairy nutritionists...

In a basic view, the ensiling process consists of the conversion of simple sugars to organic acids — specifically, lactic acid — under anaerobic conditions. However, the exposur...

Moving from a dry hay system to baleage involves additional capital investment. In fact, it’s a major reason why many hay producers don’t make that switch.Even with the additional cash outlay for...

Forage quality is often discussed and written about. Often, through experience, we understand improved fiber and starch digestibility to mean more energy available per pound of silage fed...

AS I travel around, I see a lot of silage in uncovered piles, many for use by cow-calf or backgrounding operations. Looking at the amount of surface spoilage and knowing about the other major so...

Until recently, it’s been a challenging year on the crop side of the ledger. In the rearview mirror are events such as widespread alfalfa winterkill in some regions and relentless rain events in man...