Farmers Mix Feed in Silo

Farmers Mix Feed in Silo CROPS New Techniques 10-1-22 Three Fall Creek, Wis., farmers have turned their silo into a feed mixer by filling the structure with a mix of corn silage and haylage at fall harvest. Dale Wathke and his brother Myron, told FARM SHOW the idea works great if you have enough equipment and people to chop both corn and hay at the same time. They've done it for the past 8 years, mixing their third-cut alfalfa with an early maturing (80 to 85 days) corn variety in a 16 by 55-ft. concrete silo. "If everything goes right the corn matures about Sept. 1 when the alfalfa is ready. We run two choppers and blow alternating loads of silage and haylage into the silo. The distributor mixes the two as they go in and again when the feed comes out," says Dale. One of the biggest benefits of the mix is that it practically eliminates milk fever because the calcium content in the mix is lower than in straight haylage. "When we start to feed it, our milk fever problems go away," says Dale. The mix also helps stretch their hay crop when hay may be in short supply. And by making haylage they avoid weather problems that might make it difficult to bale.

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