Learn about principles of hay and silage, sensory evaluation of hay, technology tips, and more. Take a pasture tour. See how your best hay stacks up (pun intended) against hay from around the state. Join the Oregon Forage & Grassland Council and the Oregon Hay & Forage Association for the Fall Forage Festival and Hay King Contest at the Yamhill Valley Heritage Center in McMinnville.
Friday, November 15: Speakers and Discussion
Saturday, November 16: Hay King Contest
Registration of $30 per person will be collected at the door (cash, checks & credit cards accepted). OFGC and OHFA members will pay only $15 per person. Lunch will be provided both days. For the full schedule and additional details, visit the following links:
Summer is in full force. Cows need lots of water. Calves do
too.
A study by Wickramasinghe and colleagues published earlier
this year examined differences in offering calves free-choice water starting at
day 0 vs. day 17 (the average age from the 2014 USDA National Animal Health
Monitoring System study). The study’s Holstein calves were bottle fed ad lib
volumes of milk at 6 quarts per day (over 3 feedings) until 14 days of age,
then 10 quarts per day (over 3 feedings) from 14 to 42 days, then 3.4 quarts
per day (1 feeding) until weaning at 49 days.
What did they discover?
Once they had water available, the
starting-at-day-17 calves drank more water through the rest of the preweaning
period.
Calves with water from day 0 drank more milk
than the group starting water at day 17.
Starter intake did not differ significantly
between the two groups.
Calves with water available from day 0 were, on
average, taller and longer at weaning and heavier at 5 months than those who
didn’t have water until day 17.
The two groups had essentially the same incidence
pattern of scours.
These results are in accord with an earlier study published
in 1984 by Kertz et al. With a more limited milk allowance and much younger
weaning age (28 days!), calves with free access to water ate more calf starter
and gained more weight with no difference in incidence of scours compared to
calves with no water available.
The bottom line: Make sure your calves have water! Even for
the youngest ones, water will help them grow.
The papers:
Wickramasinghe et al. Drinking water intake of newborn dairy calves and its effects on feed intake, growth performance, health status, and nutrient digestibility. Journal of Dairy Science, 2019, 102:377-387.
Kertz et al. Ad Libitum Water Intake by Neonatal Calves and Its Relationship to Calf Starter Intake, Weight Gain, Feces Score, and Season. Journal of Dairy Science, 1984, 67:2964-2969.
Along with Oregon Forage and Grassland Council, the Animal & Rangeland Sciences Department of Oregon State University is holding Range Field Day. Topics will include pasture management, targeted grazing, soil health, and novel production systems. Take a tour of OSU Dairy Center pastures and learn about ongoing forage trials.
When: Thursday, June 27, 2019; 8:00-4:30; lunch provided
Where: Oldfield Animal Teaching Facility, Oregon State University (3521 SW Campus Way, Corvallis)
Topics on tap for the Central Oregon Forage Seminar (2019) include: producing low-carb horse hay, effects of storage on hay quality, the 2019 water outlook, forage pest control, measuring reduced lignin quality, and industrial hemp.
When: Wednesday, January 30, 2019 (all day)
Where: 4-H Clover Club Building, Prineville, Oregon
RSVP to OSU Crook County Extension Service (541-447-6228) by January 25.
The Oregon Hay & Forage Association and Oregon Forage & Grassland Council are holding a Fall Forage Festival, which will include conversations about hay nutrient values and storage, coping with drought, current research, and resources. Plus the Hay King Contest!
When: November 16 and 17
Where: Corvallis, Oregon
Cost: $30 (includes lunch)
For the rest of the details, click the pdf link below.
Educational seminars (maximizing corn silage quality, effects of drought stress on digestibility, water conservation) and free lunch(!) are at the University of Idaho Kimberly Research and Extension Center. The field day is September 13, 2018, 10:00-2:00.
For additional details and to RSVP (by September 10), click here to open the flyer.
Join the Polk SWCD staff as they host forage seed growers from our region to learn about the many seed resources grown in our region. Livestock and horse owners will learn about the many grass, legume, and other kinds of seed available for high quality forage production. Factors such as suitability to soil type and moisture, hardiness, and livestock dietary need will be discussed by our panel of growers and seed company representatives. Bring a tag from a pasture seed mix bag or other list for discussion.
RSVP by February 20 to Claudia.Ingham@PolkSWCD.com or 503-623-9680 ext. 101 to ensure your light dinner at 5pm.
Diagrams of the silage bunker with the sample locations noted (circles). The half of the bunker with the standard system had only a top later of polyethylene covering. The OB system half also had an oxygen barrier that extended from the top all the way down the side in addition to the top layer of polyethylene. Figure 1 from Lima et al. Journal of Dairy Science 100:4565-4573, June 2017. Note: the figure is not to scale.
For those with bunker silos, there’s a new study that suggests using an oxygen barrier (OB) up the sides and partway across the top will reduce spoilage and waste. Researchers in Brazil captured multiple corn silage samples from eight different silos that were differently covered one side to the other. Half of the filled bunker had a sheet of 45-μm-thick OB film (PE + EVOH) lining the side and folding over the top by approximately 6.5 feet (see figure B). Over the top of the entire bunker was a standard (ST) 180-μm-thick polyethylene (PE) film. Central core silage samples were compared to samples from just below the surface from both the OB and ST sides (see figures A & B).
The quality profiles of the OB samples were very similar to the core samples in terms of pH, TDN (total digestible nutrients), mold concentration, and most other variables. In contrast, the ST samples had significantly higher pH, higher mold and yeast concentrations, and lower starch and TDN compared to the core samples. Silage samples closest to the walls showed the largest effect of the sealing system. Lining the bunker with OB film reduced aerobic spoilage on the shoulders, yielding higher quality feed that resulted in an estimate of 256 pounds more milk per ton of dry matter consumed. The authors recommend overlapping the OB film at least 200 cm (79 inches) on the top of the silage and weighting the top PE film (or tarp) particularly well at the walls.
SAFETY REMINDER: Silage faces are hazardous. Even a not-too-high, correctly shaved face can still collapse. No one who is not actively unloading from the feedout face should be anywhere in the area. A good rule of thumb is to stay at a distance of three times the height of the face. And don’t fill the bunker higher than the unloader can reach.
