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How many acres of corn for silage

jon f mn

jon f mn

Well-known Member
I would like to chop some corn for silage this fall and am wondering how many acres it takes assuming the corn is good. I will have about 15 head from 300 pounds to near full grown. Is there a formula for so many acres/steer or steers/acre that I can go by to give me an idea. Maybe how many pounds/year/head would be a way to figure it.
 
I'm thinking 5-6 acres of good corn for silage should get you through the winter presuming you will feed some hay as well.
 
I would start with how much you figure each animal will eat per day. Times number of days. You will get between 10-15 tons per acre with average rainfall no problem. So if you fed 20lb per head per day for 365 days 7,300 lb or little over 3 and a half ton per critter.. so around 55 ton as fed, and 5-6 acres would come very close. Much will depend on how it is stored of course, as silage will dry out and shrink. I feed 30 lb per day to my milking cows, but they also get,another 25-30 lb of haylage plus dairy ration according to milk products/stage of lactation, but these are mature cows. And your calves will start at 400 lb and grow 2 lb or more each day. So much depends on how much other fed like hay and ground corn you intend to feed.
 
Check your state extension service website (the University of Minnesota) for feed conversion rates of different breeds of cattle, ration mixes, silage yields in your part of the state, etc. If the U of M does not have that info, the other land grant college extension services should: Iowa State University, University of Illinois, Michigan State University, Ohio State, Indiana, Nebraska, etc. There is likely a big difference in acres required for Holstein calves verses Angus or Herfords.
 
Bruce is right, start by coming up with a diet, including how much they will eat per head, per day. Then figure out how many days you want to feed silage. Then come up with a couple yield scenarios, and you will be able to determine silage acreage needs.

In the meantime, figure out how to store the stuff. Do you have a silo? A small diameter bag might work well for 30 steers... but whatever scenario, you need to feed it fast enough to prevent spoilage.

Given the current price of corn, silage could be a good option, but there are some things to figure out first.
 
My problem is my herd is many sizes and breeds so it will be hard to get a good figure on how much they will eat. This year I'll have 3 beef just finishing and 2-600 pound Holsteins and 5-300 pound Holsteins. I'll likely have another 5 or so younger Holsteins. I will feed all year if I can. But I mostly just want to use my chopper and chop silage for the fun of it. Lol
 
Well, I have silage budgets, too... but with more zeros behind the numbers. Have someone help with a diet for various sizes, and make a rough approximation of how many you will have of each size. Any records of how much feed you feed now? That would help.
 
Now they get hay and ground corn. I give them all the hay they want and three five gallon pails of corn a day.
 
With corn silage the amount of hay they will eat will go way down. Do you put them on pasture for the summer? It is hard to keep ahead of spoilage in the heat of the summer if they are on pasture.
 
Well, that is a start. But try to refine all the hay they will eat a little more. How many bales per day? Consistent year round? Try to figure out how many lbs of hay you are using per day.
 
My Handy Dandy John Deere Pocket Ledger from 1950 says that 15 tons per acre and 3 3/5 acres will fill a 12x28 silo and that will keep 15 cows for 6 months if you feed them each 40 pounds per day.
 
Ya. That sounds about right for Minnesota. I remember filling a 12 x 30 from 6 acres but that was from the old wide rows. Big corn, though. In the John Deere notebook they used 15 tons per acre for their computations.
 
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