Greg and Bob Zwald
Bomaz Farms
Hammond, Wis.
Scope: Milk 700 dairy cows and grow all of their own crops

Situation: First crop haylage is a particularly challenging crop to ensile. One of the biggest hurdles is putting it up at the correct moisture. A heavy crop, poor drying conditions and weather challenges often create less than ideal conditions. The summer of 2008 will be one for the Midwestern history books. Many areas had record flooding, as Mother Nature released her fury in early June after a particularly late and cool spring. First crop alfalfa lay cut in fields, turning rank, with very dim prospects of hitting ideal moistures.

This describes the situation for the Bomaz Farms first crop, which accounts for a significant portion of their forage needs for 700 lactating Holsteins. Rather than watch the crop spoil in the field, the decision was made to risk ensiling at a higher moisture.

Goal: To feed the first crop alfalfa haylage before it turned clostridial (high in butyric acid). Alfalfa haylage put up at greater than 65 percent moisture invariably results in poor fermentation and eventually will turn clostridial. This type of fermentation challenges dry matter intake on lactating cows and results in poor animal performance, health issues and a loss of silage energy.

Solution: Greg mentioned his concerns during a Vita Plus farm visit. His forage was high-quality and had been inoculated with Crop-N-Rich, filled quickly, adequately packed and covered immediately. Forage management was top-notch and a high priority at Bomaz. They had serious concerns about this particular bunker of haylage.

During the discussion, Chris Hallada, Forage Technical Service Manager, mentioned that since the alfalfa forage was managed correctly at the start and fermentation was complete, opening the silo and feeding the forage as quickly as possible would minimize clostridial problems. This recommendation created difficulties in how the bunkers were filled because subsequent crops couldn’t be placed in front of this first crop.

Results: Greg and Bob decided to take the advice and, after two weeks of illing, they opened the first crop and feeding commenced.

High milk production was maintained through the summer with minimal health concerns. A return visit in September found the first crop nearly fed. While it definitely created storage issues with later crops, it was obvious the first crop was beginning to turn clostridial. In Greg's words:

"There is no way, if we would have handled this crop and fed it as we normally would have, it would have turned out this good. We took our Vita Plus consultant’s advice and while it did create storage issues throughout the summer, we maintained milk production at over 90 lbs and the forage fed extremely well. With less than three weeks left to feed it, we are now beginning to see the clostridial fermentation developing. We believe the recommendation saved us from lost milk production and waste of valuable forage. If you share this advice with someone else and they doubt its ability to work, have them call me."