|
NWIL | I have been doing trit over rye since I started the cover crop/balage thing 8-9 years ago. Main reason is the longer harvest window that you get with trit. I usually mow around Mother's day, but here in the midwest it isn't uncommon for a rain event to pop up right around then. Seems as though I'm able to stay at the peak of tonnage/quality a lot longer (as in days) if I have to hold off mowing due to rain/ground conditions, whereas rye seems to have a virtual knife edge of hours if its warm to where it quickly turns to straw if a weather delay hits. On this ground I am trying to get as much tonnage off as few acres of crop ground, so I only plant about 15 acres a year and then come back and put in sorghum sudan on those acres for two more cuts. Those 15 acres take care of the vast majority of the feed needs for my 50-60 head cow herd. I do have some alfalfa I put up as well, but I'd guess I'd need another 50-60 acres of it over the 20 I currently have. With the dedication of 15 acres to CCs I've been able to cut back on how much hay ground I need to establish and worry about with winter kill while adding a lot more cows and keep more acres in crop which is the real bread and butter here. Corn silage would give the most tonnage, my operation and locations just isn't conducive for it, I've tried it, round bales just fit me better. The extra cost of trit over rye is of very little consequence. I was the first in the area to use trit, now quite a few of the folks that were going with rye have made the switch as well. Quality of the feed also generally is a bit higher with the trit when comparing tests and the eye test with the cows. I have learned that the trit bales are a better fit for over winter after the cows come in off stalks and then switch to the SS bales once it runs out and they start getting later in pregnancy and calving.
Edited by j.p 3/6/2024 12:27
| |
|
Rye vs. Triticale Baleage
