Well Spring has finally arrived in Southern Minnesota! That's the good news, the bad news is that we're quickly finding out what lingering damages exist from the Drought of 2012. As spring starts, usually our alfalfa fields start to green up just like perennials in a flower garden, but this year the plants have been really slow to green up.
We work very closely with a agronomist who has been scouting our fields for weeks already. He's not finding very good news for us. We know at this moment that we will need to re-seed at least 40 acres of alfalfa that never made it through the winter. We planted this field last fall, and thanks to the drought only half of the seeds germinated, the other half sat in the field for the winter. Those seeds that did germinate never made it through the rough winter, as they didn't have enough moisture in the fall to get a good start. Moral of the story: 40 acres of alfalfa seed is now dead or rotten. Yuck!
Since we were building our lagoon last year we also postponed planting an additional 40 acres of alfalfa....so we need to plant 80 acres of alfalfa, hopefully this week! It's possible these fields will yield at least one cutting of haylage for us this year, but we're going to need some serious rain and sunshine to push it along. So that leaves us with the remaining fields from the past years (we plant a field of alfalfa and keep it for about 3-4 years). While the acres are small, they are very valuable....our only source for alfalfa for the summer. We still don't know that status of these fields. Hopefully with 70's in the forecast, we will have excellent news by the end of the week!
So what does this mean for the cows??? Well, we have already worked with our nutritionist and lowered the amount of alfalfa haylage in the cows' diet and replaced it with more corn silage. Our inventory of haylage from 2012 is disappearing VERY quickly! We'll be completely out in only a couple weeks. Alfalfa is a very important feed to our cows, supplying protein and fiber, so we want to continue to feed it while we can. By adding more corn silage we will be using more of our inventory than we expected as well...which means in August we may be rationing out our corn silage and replacing it with haylage....it's a balancing act. Ultimately we will continue to do our best to make the best forages possible for our cows....sacrificing nothing for our cows...they deserve the best care & nutrition!
Showing posts with label agronomist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label agronomist. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Monday, October 11, 2010
A Tale of Two Harvests...
In Minnesota we have been enjoying some AMAZING weather! It's been a record breaking week! We had 90's for 2 days this week, and 80's for 4 days. Last year at this time we had 2 inches of snow on the ground, 20's and most of the crops were in the field. This year most of the crops have been harvested, bedding is being made, and tillage will start in a few days. We have been so blessed this growing season with ample rain and heat. Our soybeans and corn have produced quite the bounty!
We are looking forward to the next few days to make more bedding for our cows, heifers and calves. Dry bedding helps us keep our cows clean and dry, in addition to keeping them healthy. Winter months and wet weather require literally tons of dry bedding to allow us to do a good job caring for our cows. After we wrap up bedding, we will work right into manure hauling. We have a few storage units holding months worth of cow, heifer and calf manure. We can't haul all of our manure in the growing season, so we store it until the fall when we can hit the fields hard. By applying the manure to fields, according to our agronomist's recommendations, we utilize all of our farm nutrients and reduce our need for commercial fertilizer. We also apply manure on some of our neighbors' fields to help make sure that we don't over apply manure on our farm. We use manure as a trading item with our neighbors. In exchange for valuable nutrients and organic matter, we get the opportunity to make bedding from our neighbors' corn and soybean fields. So it's a win/win for everyone. So...hopefully I will get some pictures up soon.
We are looking forward to the next few days to make more bedding for our cows, heifers and calves. Dry bedding helps us keep our cows clean and dry, in addition to keeping them healthy. Winter months and wet weather require literally tons of dry bedding to allow us to do a good job caring for our cows. After we wrap up bedding, we will work right into manure hauling. We have a few storage units holding months worth of cow, heifer and calf manure. We can't haul all of our manure in the growing season, so we store it until the fall when we can hit the fields hard. By applying the manure to fields, according to our agronomist's recommendations, we utilize all of our farm nutrients and reduce our need for commercial fertilizer. We also apply manure on some of our neighbors' fields to help make sure that we don't over apply manure on our farm. We use manure as a trading item with our neighbors. In exchange for valuable nutrients and organic matter, we get the opportunity to make bedding from our neighbors' corn and soybean fields. So it's a win/win for everyone. So...hopefully I will get some pictures up soon.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Manure Management Meetings on Friday
It's been a busy weekend, but I wanted to take some time to recap some of the things that we worked on Friday. We had a BUNCH of meetings on Monday at the farm with the various professional that we work with to help us make good choices for our land and resources. This year we are planning to grow our 1st crop of corn! Previously Jonathan and I purchased all of the feed that we feed our cows from my father in law. Growing our own crops (at least part of our feed needs) will allow us to save money as we can work to grow feed at a lower cost than we can purchase it...not that my father in law ripped us off, but now we can use our own labor instead of paying him and our own manure instead of giving it away to neighbors.
We work with our local cooperative's agronomy department, which helps us mange our soils and crops. We pulled soil samples a few weeks ago to determine the quality of the soil in our field. The good news is that with the management of manure in the previous years resulted in some very fertile soils that will only require a small amount of commercial fertilizer to get the corn started. The remaining nutrients are already in the soil thanks to cow manure from last fall! Another excellent bonus is that this lower level of commercial fertilizer will not only reduce the total cost of growing corn but increase the biological activity of the soil microbes (bacteria) which break down cow manure and crop residue (leaves and stalks left over from last year). We were excited to hear this news and even more excited to get into the fields to get that corn planted!
We also work with a private practice agronomist/manure management specialist. His name is Al, and he helps us keep track of so many things on our farm regarding manure. Al has been sampling our manure for the past few years, making sure that we don't over or under apply manure to our soils. This insures that we will always apply our cow manure at the appropriate rate. We have even calibrated all of our manure spreaders so we know how many pounds/tons of manure we apply per acre. One project that we have our friend Al working on right now, is recalculating our manure management plan. Our manure management plan is a document of many pages which accounts for the amount of manure that our cows produce each year and how many acres that are required in order to apply that manure. A series of manure samples, soil samples, and calculations are included and used to determine those acres. As our herd has grown this past winter, we have to re-calcualte the manure management plan, making sure yet again that we do not over apply manure.
Maintaining our soils is our number one goal. Manure is not a pollutant when used properly, but instead a GREAT fertilizer which grows some of the best corn in the area! I even use manure to grow my flowers, fruits and vegetables....and I have an amazing crop each year!
We work with our local cooperative's agronomy department, which helps us mange our soils and crops. We pulled soil samples a few weeks ago to determine the quality of the soil in our field. The good news is that with the management of manure in the previous years resulted in some very fertile soils that will only require a small amount of commercial fertilizer to get the corn started. The remaining nutrients are already in the soil thanks to cow manure from last fall! Another excellent bonus is that this lower level of commercial fertilizer will not only reduce the total cost of growing corn but increase the biological activity of the soil microbes (bacteria) which break down cow manure and crop residue (leaves and stalks left over from last year). We were excited to hear this news and even more excited to get into the fields to get that corn planted!
We also work with a private practice agronomist/manure management specialist. His name is Al, and he helps us keep track of so many things on our farm regarding manure. Al has been sampling our manure for the past few years, making sure that we don't over or under apply manure to our soils. This insures that we will always apply our cow manure at the appropriate rate. We have even calibrated all of our manure spreaders so we know how many pounds/tons of manure we apply per acre. One project that we have our friend Al working on right now, is recalculating our manure management plan. Our manure management plan is a document of many pages which accounts for the amount of manure that our cows produce each year and how many acres that are required in order to apply that manure. A series of manure samples, soil samples, and calculations are included and used to determine those acres. As our herd has grown this past winter, we have to re-calcualte the manure management plan, making sure yet again that we do not over apply manure.
Maintaining our soils is our number one goal. Manure is not a pollutant when used properly, but instead a GREAT fertilizer which grows some of the best corn in the area! I even use manure to grow my flowers, fruits and vegetables....and I have an amazing crop each year!
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Corn planting continues
Corn planting continues at Orange Patch Dairy. My father in law was able to put in about 65 acres of corn in today and yesterday. He was having his usual early season problems with our 8-row John Deere planter yesterday, which slowed him down. The planter was skipping in a couple of rows...making for very uneven rows of corn. SO.....we brought it home, got it in the shop and fixed it. Back to the field. The weather forecast looks good for the coming days, so we are hoping to apply the last little bit of fertilizer, work that in, and finish planting our 250 acres of corn for the year. Since we work with our agronomist on nutrient management, we are able to utilize our natural fertilizer (manure) first for our fields. Our agronomist pulls soil and manure samples to calculate the amount of commercial fertilizer we need to apply each spring. Usually we only need to apply a "pop up" fertilizer. This fertilizer is used to help the corn plants get a good start on the growing season, after that the plants will rely on the organic matter, nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous of our cow manure!
Del Monte Foods delivered the packer for the pea field but no drill yet, so I guess that means that the peas will be planted soon! I love peas from the field! We usually plant about 30-40 acres of peas each year to be harvested sometime in mid-June. This allows us to have an empty field in the summer for manure application. Once the sweet corn is harvested in July/August then we move to applying manure on that field and seed the old pea field in with alfalfa. If we time it just right, we get a good rain in August and the fall seeded alfalfa is off to the races! The beauty of farming is getting the most from each acre without depleting it of nutrients. By rotating our crops and planting different types of crops like alfalfa, peas and sweet corn, we are able to better utilize our soils for our cows and our farm.
Del Monte Foods delivered the packer for the pea field but no drill yet, so I guess that means that the peas will be planted soon! I love peas from the field! We usually plant about 30-40 acres of peas each year to be harvested sometime in mid-June. This allows us to have an empty field in the summer for manure application. Once the sweet corn is harvested in July/August then we move to applying manure on that field and seed the old pea field in with alfalfa. If we time it just right, we get a good rain in August and the fall seeded alfalfa is off to the races! The beauty of farming is getting the most from each acre without depleting it of nutrients. By rotating our crops and planting different types of crops like alfalfa, peas and sweet corn, we are able to better utilize our soils for our cows and our farm.
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