corn silage

[keh]

Dairymen here cutting corn for silage. Dry weather has reduced yield maybe by 1/3. Just curious, how mny acres of average corn does it take to feed a cow for the year's feeding?

KEH

 

[phillip d]

We only feed corn to our milking cows,feed 50/50 corn silage to haylage and 35 acres will do 50 cows for the year if that is any help.pd

 

[barnrat]

I don't feed corn silage to my dairy cows anymore. I have gone to feeding all snap corn, grass silage and bmr sorghum silage. I do custom chop other farmers corn and typical yield is 15 to 20 tons per acre. Most farmers that feed corn silage are feeding 40 to 60 pounds(as fed) of corn silage per cow per day along with grass silage or hay and grain. Dry cows usually get around 25-30 pounds per cow per day. So under ideal conditions you would feed 40-60lbs for 305 days milking and 25-30lbs for 60 days dry. So that would be around 7 to 10 tons of corn silage per cow per year or approximately 1/2 acre per cow per year.

 

[keh]

Thanks for replies, guys. I'm in western SC if that's of any interest and a lot of the silage corn in not irrigated.

KEH

 

[kyhayman]

60 acres feeds 60 cows for two thirds a year here. Most folks double crop corn silage to wheat or tritcale silage and use that small grain silage to fill out the year.