The goal is to try and get the best milk production you can. With good-quality silage, cows consume the feed better and make more milk. He learned the hard way. Two years ago, the Mason County dairyman's rolling herd average was 21,600 pounds. While he can't do anything about the weather, this producer intensely manages every step of silage production, from variety selection to feeding.
Timing is key.
And it takes the same amount of work to put up a good crop as it does a bad one. In order to stagger the chopping season and get his burley tobacco housed, he plants both an early and a late corn crop, drilling 27,300 seeds per acre for the early corn and 26,100 for the later. I like to start out with 113-day corn and then move forward to 119 days and into 120 and 121 days with the early corn. I look for a silage corn that has good standability, that will stay green for a long time and won't dry up. I want a corn that has some height, but is not overly tall.