corn silage

Is putting up corn silage for beef cattle worth it?
I found I can buy a decent chopper for 500-1,000 and chopper boxes for about the same as well as a planter in same price range. I don't have any silos so it would just be piled and tarped on the ground. Btw the fields would have to be rented.
How many head of cattle before its worth it? Is it ever?
-Garrett

Corn silage is high in energy, but low in protein, so if you got Alfalfa hay it's a perfect combination! My dad didn't put up corn silage until 1956, when my 4-H leader told him the cows will leave hay to eat corn silage, but if the corn silage is the right moisture,and cut fine, you dont need to cover it with plastic,providing it's packed good,my cousin never covered his and had silage on his farm 11 months out of the year, and very little waste!

Corn silage is a good feed source for cattle but you have many variables to be determined. Once you start plugging actual numbers in then you can begin to determine if it is viable for you. I would say based on what I have seen tarping corn silage on bare ground is challenging to say the least. I think I would look into bagging it with a cost of 7.50 to 10.00 dollars per linear foot to do so depending on bag size. If your area cooperative extension is willing to help (and that can a big if) then they can help you find realistic numbers for your area in terms of land rental, fertilizer needed, etc. to figure out a threshold where a profit on your proposed operation can happen.

Where is this in that you can leave silage uncovered and not lose a substantial amount to spoilage?

Corn silage is almost to good of feed for beef cows. If spring calving you need to be careful not to overfeed as it will make big calves. For our beef cows we chop rye and then plant a forage sorghum to also be chopped. I do feed some corn silage in the coldest part of winter. We have our own silage bagger with a seven ft tunnel. I have around 25 moma cows and finish all my calves along with a few bought ones. I have fed corn silage off a pile on the ground but was unhappy with the waste. There are plenty of cheap smaller choppers and wagons around for reasonable prices. I watched a Deere 3940 with one row corn head in decent shape sell for $450 last week and $1000 will buy a decent wagon. If you make a pile make it long and narrow and pack it well before covering. I would go with a bag it there is one available. Tom

We always had a stack and only covered it one year and dad said the plastic cost more than the loss. Our stack usually only lasted the winter, but my brothers fed all year off stacks. It looks like a lot of loss but it's not packed and is mostly the fluff on top and not many tons.

Does nobody use a trench silo anymore?

Other than the Mennonites and Amish who still use upright silos everybody else uses bunkers (big operations) or bags around here. Usually a farmer can custom hire a bagger for very reasonable cost. No pits, trenches, on the ground type silos around here. Might get away without covering around here if you fill silo around Thanksgiving (pretty much dried out cellulose by then along with the grain) and use up by March.

In North Dakota,my cousin Roger had 150 cow's,his own chopper, he was a pro at putting up silage, there was never over 3 inches of waste, he retired now,but he done it that way for 50 years!

I got another neighbor Ron,he got 1/3 of his pile left, he is almost as good as Roger, you want me to send u picture of his pile!

The big dairies have gone to the giant mound on a hard surface, and covered with plastic.

Modest dairies are mostly bags.

There are a few bunker type left.

Can’t do a trench around here, our water table is too high at least part of the year.

I’d say the beef feeders seem to like the bunker silo without covering it the most. As well as some bags.

Paul

I honestly don't think it's worth it.I would just buy 55 gal. drums of feed corn to fatten them up towards the end of their days.of course that depends if you have them on grass,if not you can feed some corn with hay,but it really depends on how you feed them now,and how you want them to be for butchering.that is just how I would do it.but corn silage is too good for beef.

Rock

(reply to post at 11:55:14 08/23/20)

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Look around your area. You will find farmers who have sold their cattle but are still cropping and will sell corn silage delivered when you want for way less than you could get it made.

Making corn silage is a great way to get the most amount of feed calories from an acre of corn. You do need a certain number of cattle to feed just to keep the feed fresh as it is fed off the bunker face/bag face/ upright silo surface.

Do not pretend you can buy cheap used up machinery and make lots of silage for next to nothing. Silage cutters wear rapidly, and need to be well maintained to get a short length of cut and get it done in a timely fashion.

Here are the rules for silage that I learned in Crop Production 101 in college:

1) Harvest at the right % moisture that matches your storage (wetter for piles, bunkers, and trenches, in the middle for bags, drier for upright concrete silos, drier yet for Harvestore-style silos).

2) Short length of cut. Process the kernels for higher digestibility.

3) Pack it tight.

4) Limit oxygen exposure by covering with plastic.

5) Feed enough off the face to minimize spoilage. Limit exposure to oxygen here too.

People who claim they don't have to cover their piles because not much spoils are most likely feeding the spoilage. That 3-6" of junk on top is what is left of at least a foot of what could have been good feed.

An uncovered pile will lose at least 15% of it's dry matter to spoilage. That makes plastic a pretty good investment.

Lon

If your pile is 30 feet deep the three inches spoilage on the top is not a big deal, When piling on the ground with no sides the pile is only 5 feet high so three inches is a big portion. I have forked two inches off the top before adding ten more feet.

Showcrop, if I can buy it so much cheaper
then how are the farmers still making it?
They'd be losing a substantial amount of
money every year. And they "sold off their
cows"

It is usually a situation where they already have the land, they already have the equipment. They don't have a meaningful new career yet so they have time, so they say well, we can plant corn so they do. Then they just need to sell it, but they don't like being a salesman so they offer it at just over their cost of inputs.

Ah I see

I use 2 trench silos dug into a hill, with a concrete floor. 70 feet long from zero to 14 feet at high end, we just fill the hole in the hill with corn silage. Has worked well for the past 16 years, and cost peanuts to create.

Chopper require a god amount of maintenence. Knives need to be tended daily to chop fine and not use a lot of fuel and power. I mean a lot of fuel and power. I used to keep them up to the ledger so they would just tick the ledger plate as they went around. This would give a cut of around a half inch to an inch long. In hay it would cut about 2 inches long. If you can see the edge they need sharpened badly. If the ledger is not a tight square corner it needs turned or replaced. There are 4 corners to work with there. Then I would use dump wagons or trucks if you are not going to blow it up a silo. Those self unloading boxes are problematic. With the chains if you don't load them only half full for the first few loads in each to soak and slick the floors up.
We used to put up 7 8x150 bags each year with the bagger. And if all went well could chop a bag a day. Took 2 driver 3 wagons and no problems which usually didn't happen. 3 corn silage 3 haylage and 1 ground ear corn for a dairy herd. Plus the dry hay. Took about 35 acres depending on the corn to fill the 8x150 bag and it was supposed to be about the same as a 16x50 silo for quantity i believe.