The Bovine Bugle

Answering questions about feed and hay

I had a question on the blog that was posted on February 11t/strong>. The question was, "Do we feed any ensilage to our cows, and is there a lot of hay available with so many farms going out of business?"

Yes, we feed ensiled feed to our animals in the form of plastic wrapped round bales. Ensiled feed is forage that is harvested at a high moisture level and then stored in a manner to encourage fermentation of the feed. With our round bales, the hay is baled at a moisture level of 50 to 70 percent. The bales are then tightly double- or triple-wrapped to keep the air out while the feed ferments. Once the fermentation process is over, in about three weeks, the bales can be fed out and the wrapped bales will keep for 1 to 2 years.

Is there more hay available now that more farms are going out of business?

Probably not to organic farmers. When a smaller farm goes out of business in our area, the farm is often bought by a neighboring, conventional, large freestall operation that needs the land for forage production and for a place to spread its liquid manure. Because of the organic standards we follow in operating our farm, we must use certified forages and grain to feed our animals. My two closest neighbors each have about 30 acres of hayland that is cropped by conventional farmers that use chemical fertilizers on the fields. This makes the feed unavailable to me. Maybe someday I'll convince my neighbors to let me manage their land organically and I would then have the feed to use.

In the last 12 years in Vermont we have gone from 2,000 dairy farms in 1993 to just under 1,300 dairy farms at the start of 2005. But in 2003, Vermont produced 2.3 million gallons of milk from 1400 dairies, 7 percent more than produced by the 2000 dairies in 1993.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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Posted by Blogger Chris at February 28, 2005 02:44 PM