Any of you had recent experience feeding corn silage to cows? We did it for many, many years, but it's been about 20 since we did it. The corn is right here on the farm. I will need to buy about 150 bales of hay otherwise and with the cost of hay, it seems to me it might be time to try silage again. It seems as thought I spend a month of Sundays hauling hay. Thanks for the info.
feeding corn silage to cows
- Thread starter oakview
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Remembered this article from a few years ago. Not very scientific but some good things to consider.
https://www.beefmagazine.com/nutrition/osu-provides-tips-surviving-high-cattle-feed-costs
https://www.beefmagazine.com/nutrition/osu-provides-tips-surviving-high-cattle-feed-costs
cowboy_nyk
Well-known member
In our area that's all cows get now pretty much. With the way land values are going the only feasible way to produce the amount of feed to get through 6 months of winter is corn silage. Just make sure you feed test it and balance the ration with mineral and grain as needed. You may even be more economical to increase the grain and mix in some straw. My brother does that every year to stretch his silage. I have never fed silage myself but we had no hay at all this year so we wrapped bales of peas/oats. Should make very nice feed.
aj
Well-known member
The deal with silage is you almost need a feed wagon and then a loader tractor or skid loader. I have seen guys use a cheap mixer wagon 600-1,000 $ wagon.
cowboy_nyk
Well-known member
That's why we went with the silage bales. No special equipment required.
Silage chopped yesterday. It's been many years. We chopped about 100 acres years ago along with a few neighbors. We started out with a 1 row New Holland chopper, then went to a 2 row when they became available. Barge wagons with end gates were used to haul in, I moved and packed with a 560. The guys yesterday had an 8 row chopper, 2 dump wagons that emptied into large trucks that in turn dumped the silage and then it was moved and packed with a huge 400,000 + John Deere. How times change. I will feed with my 706 loader bucket into the feeders I have. I guess I'm an insignificant breeder now that I only have about 30 cows here (about 20 have been sent to people helping me out after my winter/spring health issues. I think the blade on the front end of the John Deere used to move and pack probably cost more than my 706. I"m sure the cows will appreciate my efforts.
CAB
Well-known member
We used to custom chop for people starting about this time of the year and usually running for almost 60 days. I miss chopping and I miss having silage around to feed cattle. There's something about feeding silage to a bunch a cattle on a cold still day with the bunk steaming with warm silage and watching the cattle come to the bunk and loving the feed. Miss that great smell!!
WinterSpringsFarm
Well-known member
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CAB said:
The hum of the chopper or the sound of corn blown against the back of a metal wagon, the sound of a 1066 on the blower blowing silage up a silo, the sound of the unloader unloading the best smelling feed ever made, and the cows coming at a run to belly up. Yup, I miss every aspect of silage. It's been 13yrs since we've chopped any silage.
I put a small skid loader bucket full of silage out for the cows yesterday, just to see what they'd do with it. Of course, they've never had it before and have a pasture full of grass. They just nibbled at it. I'm betting come January they'll wonder where it's been all their lives!
