Sam Neukam of Huntingburg on Tuesday chopped corn plants in the Ireland area that were affected by the drought and a July 1 hailstorm. Several area farmers have elected to turn their corn crops to silage, which they will use to feed their animals in the coming months. Staff photo by Dave Weatherwax
Rather than wait for what likely will be a withered yield, several local farmers are turning their corn crops to silage, which will feed their animals in the coming months.
Two straight weeks of triple-digit temperatures, as well as a July 1 hailstorm in the Ireland area, have devastated crops. Pollination, which spurs the growth of corn kernels, requires moisture and moderate temperatures and so in many fields it failed. Although rain showers seem to have broken the heat wave in the past week, they may have come too late.
Mike Lammers, a crop and cattle farmer in Huntingburg, started chopping corn plants for silage on Tuesday. He expects to convert 200 of his 700 acres of corn into 300 to 400 tons of silage.
He hasn’t made silage for five years, and even then, it wasn’t close to the amount he’s chopping now. On the fields he’s chopping, pollination was not successful.
“There’s no corn in it,” Lammers said. “There’s just nothing in it. It’s just a big blank.”
Farmers need to test the nitrogen levels of their crops before beginning the silage process, said Ken Eck, Purdue Extension-Dubois County’s agriculture and natural resources educator.
Drought-stressed corn plants can have an exceptionally high nitrate content, which is toxic to animals. The silage process can reduce nitrates by 40 to 60 percent.
Corn silage is made by finely chopping the entire corn plant. The chopped stalks are stored in a silo, where they release carbon dioxide into the trapped air.
As carbon dioxide increases, the fermentation process begins, which reduces the nitrate content to an acceptable level. Lammers is storing his silage for 30 to 45 days.
“There is considerable feed value in the stalk and leaves for cattle, so at least you can salvage something from it,” said Huntingburg farmer and Dubois County Farm Bureau crop expert Dennis Whitsitt.
Steve Rauscher grows corn to feed his dairy cows at his farm three miles west of Huntingburg. He makes silage from some of his corn every year, but this year’s crop is different.
“Every year we chop a part of our corn, but this year it’s totally out of context,” Rauscher said. “There’s no corn in it.”
He’s already chopped part of his crop, a process he normally doesn’t start until September. He estimates that his supply of last year’s silage will run out in six to eight weeks.
“I’ve been farming 35, 40 years. This is the strangest thing I’ve ever seen,” Rauscher said.
Farmers across the state could consider harvesting their crops as silage to recover some value, Keith Johnson, a Purdue Extension forage specialist, said in a press release. The feeding value of drought-stressed corn is higher than expected, between 80 and 100 percent of normal silage, Johnson said. Drought-stressed corn silage will have slightly more fiber and less energy, but 1 to 2 percent more protein than normal silage.
A ton of good-quality silage is worth roughly nine to 10 times the price of a bushel, 56 pounds, of corn.
Whitsitt considered turning his own popcorn crop to silage but, like many farmers, he still anticipates some grain harvest. Lammers does too, on his remaining 500 acres of corn.
“Some of it’s going to make a little corn, so we won’t chop it,” he said. “That’s what we’re hoping anyway.”
© 2010 - 2024 Jasper Herald Company. All Rights Reserved.