Faunsdale, AL | yongfarmer89 - 11/15/2011 09:16
I like to chop everything as fine as i can because it's easier on wagons the blower and the silo unloader. My dairy cows go wild over junk dry hay that I feed as free choice because I have been told it is better for the cows.
I bet they do!
Neighbor of ours told about sending his crew down to bed the cow barn with straw one winter. He went by later and found no straw. As he was raising hell with his employees, to a man, they assured him they had indeed bedded the barn. Amazed that they would all tell such an obvious lie, he sent them to bed it again while he watched. The cows literally attacked the straw, cleaning it up as it was being shaken out.
He was feeding corn silage, dairy feed and "pasture". Problem was there wasn't anything much in the pasture.
I agree long hay is very effective, it can be hard to get it into every cow sometimes though. What do your cows feet look like, what do milk fat and protein levels run? How many cows have inversions (milk protein higher than milk fat)? Incidence of displaced abomasum?
While I haven't gone to the extremes of chopping at 3/4 to 1 inch TLC I have heard folks were doing, I also stay away from anything shorter than 3/8" TLC unless the corn is very dry and mature. We have a chopper with processor in it, so the grain gets cracked no matter what the length of cut is. |
Corn silage length of cut?
