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Farmers: Anyone chopping corn already?

Soybeans are in not much better shape. I've been in several fields with very few pods per plant. Rain would help....soon
 
Bluffers said:
Good luck to you guys, feel for you. Cut it high, like 2.5 feet to miss much of the concentrated nitrates. Test the silage before and as feeding. But know that it feeds like gold. The sugars are still in the stalk and the ruminate can digest them. The stuff is amazing feed, even, or especially without ears.
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It's our only chance to feed our dairy cattle. Many guys in our area have had low level of nitrates so we should be ok. We certainly aren't rushing anything and plan on letting the silage sit for a few weeks before we start feeding it.
 
I'm a lot more optimistic about our corn than our beans. Our beans at this point will yield zero without rain. Corn probably around 130
 
North central Iowa. They have been chopping since late last week and this week up here. I've seen some corn - ears about half normal size with very small kernals. Dented so it won't fill out anymore. Other places most stalks with no ears. Hope everyone has insurance this year.
 
Some silage was cut last week around here, southern Kossuth County.
Light soil will average 0, good ground 100-150?? We were dry coming into this year,
bone dry down to tile. Beans look nice from the road on good soil, when you go out in the field, not so good.
Corn harvest will happen first because the corn will go down as the plant feeds the ear and the stock falls apart. Harvest will go fast with alot less bushels to haul to town.
Fed crop insurance will be big this year. Can't farm without it.
Went to see the Twins beat the CWS on MOnday, crops look better north of I-90 as you go north. I saw a dround out spot that had water standing in it about 30 miles south of MSP on I 35.
Be safe during Harvest. Go Cyclones.
 
Bluffers said:
Chopped over 200 acres of drought corn averaging 0.7 b/acre in 1977 here in central Iowa. I just do not see the cattle or the facilities to feed as much silage as people are talking about. This is not 1980 and the price of feeders is shocking. I can only imagine some city boy banker being asked to loan fort knox for some silage to folks who have not fed cattle for half a generation. Like to be a fly on the wall in those conversations.
More power to those who know what they are doing.
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This is what I was thinking- there aren't cattle in Iowa anymore. Or any places left to store silage.
 
Actually, there are still a large number of cattle in Iowa, but it isn't the same as the 1970's when cattle were shipped to Iowa to be fed out. Instead corn is being shipped out of our state to feed cattle elsewhere. Iowa's total cattle inventory as of January 1, 2012 was 3.9 million head (6th in U.S.) with 895,000 head of beef cows (13th in U.S.), 205,000 head of dairy cows, and 1.3 million head of cattle on feed (4th in U.S.). I find the declining number of beef cows most alarming but not surprising with more and more pastures and hay fields coming under the plow given the current prices.

As far as green chopping goes, keep the chopper head up at least 12-16 inches, let the green chop sit for a day before feeding to allow the nitrates to dissipate, and test for nitrate levels.

When making silage out of drought stressed corn, make sure to test for nitrates before feeding, dilute silage that is high in nitrates with other feedstuffs, and introduce feed with a higher than normal nitrate content slowly. Ensiling drought stressed corn will reduce the nitrate levels by 40-60%

Something else to consider is baling up your soybeans for hay if the plant has few to no beans/pods anyway. Soybeans make as good or better hay than alfalfa if done correctly. Bloat can be an issue when feeding soybean hay, so you'll want to have bloat blocks out for your animals and make sure the animals are full/not extremely hungary when first fed soybean hay.
 
hansen55 said:
Actually, there are still a large number of cattle in Iowa, but it isn't the same as the 1970's when cattle were shipped to Iowa to be fed out. Instead corn is being shipped out of our state to feed cattle elsewhere. Iowa's total cattle inventory as of January 1, 2012 was 3.9 million head (6th in U.S.) with 895,000 head of beef cows (13th in U.S.), 205,000 head of dairy cows, and 1.3 million head of cattle on feed (4th in U.S.). I find the declining number of beef cows most alarming but not surprising with more and more pastures and hay fields coming under the plow given the current prices.

As far as green chopping goes, keep the chopper head up at least 12-16 inches, let the green chop sit for a day before feeding to allow the nitrates to dissipate, and test for nitrate levels.

When making silage out of drought stressed corn, make sure to test for nitrates before feeding, dilute silage that is high in nitrates with other feedstuffs, and introduce feed with a higher than normal nitrate content slowly. Ensiling drought stressed corn will reduce the nitrate levels by 40-60%

Something else to consider is baling up your soybeans for hay if the plant has few to no beans/pods anyway. Soybeans make as good or better hay than alfalfa if done correctly. Bloat can be an issue when feeding soybean hay, so you'll want to have bloat blocks out for your animals and make sure the animals are full/not extremely hungary when first fed soybean hay.
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Do you have a link to the cattle #s by state? I'd be interested to see that. I would assume CA, WI, possibly FL and some western states are ahead of us now. I'm actually surprised we're still 6th.
 
Nc iowa farm, got 1.5 inches two weeks ago with 80 mph winds. Corn laying flat. They will start harvesting around sept 1st to harvest 25% moisture corn to keep from losing during dry down....

Nothing like drying corn in a drought!
 
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