Summer Forage

Our summer crop of sudangrass has turned out to be amazing. You'll remember the trouble we had with our ryegrass volume due to the early spring drought. Well, the story is different here in midsummer. We have had ample rain, and the sudangrass shows it. Most of this forage will be stored as baleage and used to feed the dairy herd throughout the winter. If you've ever wondered what a field of milk looks like, this is it. We still have about half of this crop to get harvested, so I won't count my chickens too early. Tomorrow will be all hands on deck for the final push to finish up the baling and wrapping. Once that's done, I'll take inventory of our stored forage and make predictions for our winter needs. There is the opportunity for a second cutting of sudangrass if we continue to get enough rain. This past year, we barely had enough, so I'd like to avoid that stress again. It's worth doing the extra work now to go into winter knowing the cattle will eat well no matter what that season holds.