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For More Info on Wideswath Haymaking:
Thomas F. Kilcer
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Rensselaer County
518-272-4210, tfk1@cornell.edu
http://counties.cce.cornell.edu/rensselaer/agriculture/alfalfa_research.htm
Wideswathing Pays Farmer in Milk Gain, Lower Feed Costs
Willard De Golyer says whenever anyone talks about
improving forage quality, he and his farm crew listen closely. That’s how the
Castile, N.Y. dairy farmer discovered a way to harvest hay that significantly
cut drying time and feed costs and increased milk production.
De Golyer
operates Table Rock Farm, located approximately 50 miles south of Rocheter. He
started feeding Wide-swathed haylage to his cows in fall 2004 after the farm’s
Crop Specialist Jeff Jordan learned about a wide-swathing project at a Western
New York Crop Management Association field day. That project was funded by the
nonprofit research group, the New York Farm Viability Institute, to examine
how dairy farms might harvest high-quality forage to reduce purchased grain
costs and still see increases in milk production. (Since 2004, the New York
Farm Viability Institute has provided more than $6.2 million in grants to
projects that are developing and fine-tuning agricultural practices to help
farmers reduce costs and increase efficiencies and profitability.)
Wide swath mowing spreads forage to 90 percent or more of the cut width,
creating up to three times more sun exposure over traditionally harvested
narrow windrows. Thomas Kilcer, a Cornell Cooperative Extension crop and soil
specialist from Rensselaer County, used a $14,500 Farm Viability Institute
grant in 2005 to develop field trials aimed at reducing the amount of soluble
protein in haylage and raising its forage value.
Kilcer says with the right weather wide-swathed hay has dried to optimum
moisture levels in as little as three to five hours. De Golyer harvests
haylage from 600 acres in first cutting and 800 acres in second cutting, and
reports drying times of two to six hours. A narrow-swathed crop can take days
to dry and is at risk of complete loss from prolonged exposure to the weather.
On average each cow at Table Rock Farm is fed 10.7 lbs of hay dry matter and
22 lbs of corn silage dry matter per day. Crop varieties are selected using
data from trials by Cornell University. John Zmich of Finger Lakes Nutrition
says wide-swathing is resulting in a diet for De Golyer’s cows that is 15
percent higher in forage, and a savings of 30-40 cents/cow/day in grain costs
for the 1,000-cow herd, not to mention the bonus of increased milk production
spurred by the higher quality, nutritionally-rich forage.
The Table
Rock Farm crew first used wideswath mowing and merging to make haylage in 2004
and 2005. In 2006, they took the conditioner out of a 16-foot Hesston haybine
in 2006 and removed the rolls from three more haybines. With some experience
now, they figure it takes 30 hours to convert a haybine.
In the fall of 2006 while feeding the haylage that was cut without
conditioning Table Rock Farm began to see a gain in milk production.
Kilcer says, “There is a potential gain of 300 lbs. worth of milk production
in every ton of dry matter fed as wide-swathed silage.”
De Golyer attributes a gain of 1,000 pounds of milk sold per cow per year from
2005-2006 in part to the higher quality of the wide-swathed haylage that
retains its leaves.
Switching to wide swathing was not without trial and error. De Golyer says,
“There was a learning curve. Temperature, wind, dew, sun all affect drying
time.”
He says the new equipment had to be reconfigured because Agco Corp., which
produces Hesston
haybines, wouldn’t make them without the conditioner rolls. The manufacture of
haybines without the rolls will depend on producer demand and demand may grow
as more and more producers find success with wide swathing.