Chilliwack, British Columbia | Jayme,
Alfalfa cannot handle the rain we get in the spring and fall. Some guys can get away with it, better drained soils, but for the most part we are just too wet for most of the year. We have made grass silage that can compete very well with alfalfa anyway, but that is not always the case. The biggest difference is the digestability. We had Mike Hutjens from University of Illinois (I think) say he is scared of our 1st cut grass silage.
Lots of guys make baleage here, but hopefully we are no longer going to be one of them. Hard to feed, lots of plastic to contend with, expensive to make. Gonna chop it all if we can build some bunkers next year. All the corn is grown for silage, it makes up over about 40-45% of our dairy diet on DM%. BMR is just taking off here, so may some increase in digestability on that.
I know of some farmers that paid over $60000/acre for land. I remember $10000/acre, that was not really that long ago, blueberry land skewed the price. If planted to blueberries, they are asking $80000+. But, I don't think I could farm anywhere else. I don't remember ever having a crop "failure", and it does'nt get too hot or too cold,so cows are almost always comfortable. Plus we don't haver stupid rules to contend with.
Glenn |
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