Hayguy
Well-known member
just wondering how your latest corn grazing experiment turned out?
Hey RSL
- Thread starter Hayguy
- Start date
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Well...
I brought cows home on Jan 13th.
I don't know my Days per acre yet, but I know this is the best crop I have grown. A couple of strange things...
My neighbours all tell me corn on corn on corn gets cheaper. I am not sure. When I soil tested the N recommendation that came back from the swath grazing area (not fertilized in 20 years) was less than the corn ground from last year. I would up fertilizing 100# of N at a cost of roughly $80 per acre (applicator included). Seed was right around $80. Insurance was $20. Planter rent was $15. Sprayed twice at roughly $12 per acre each time (applicator included). All in I am around $250/acre.
We had a slow start due to lack of moisture, but a lot of heat made things really pop and the open fall helped. In the end my moisture insurance paid out more than what it cost to grow the corn. I am thinking we will make over 200 days per acre (maybe up to 250) and the cows have gained a lot of condition in just a couple of weeks.
Others have all said it will boost my soil OM, but based on soil tests we are pretty well at 7.50% OM on corn or swath grazing ground, so I think that might depend on your starting point. Anecdotally a lot of neighbours have seen numbers go up to 3 or 3.5%.
On another piece where we grew corn last year, I direct drilled oats/barley/rye/triticale and vetch with my international 6200 (definitely not a no till drill). It had not rained, so I did not even want to waste moisture or money by cultivating. This went in the last week of June and yielded 6000# of DM per acre, plus regrowth. This actually encouraged me to include corn in my rotation more than grazing the corn actually did. I think the fertility helps the next year and the disease break is very good.
We are still challenged with early spring grazing. I have taken lots of days on volunteer barley in the spring, but have yet to see a volunteer corn plant. My plan to tackle this hole in our grazing is as follows...
After corn, I will direct drill barley/oats, etc. as soon as I can drive out there. I will graze that in combination with our land that was swath/bale grazed. I will drill corn into the swath grazing ground around May 20th (depending on soil temp). Each year I may try to flip fields. I am also messing around with trying to get 3 cereal crops every 2 years, and intentionally grazing down pastures in early spring and then direct seeding oats with alfalfa and possibly some grass seed. We'll see.
I brought cows home on Jan 13th.
I don't know my Days per acre yet, but I know this is the best crop I have grown. A couple of strange things...
My neighbours all tell me corn on corn on corn gets cheaper. I am not sure. When I soil tested the N recommendation that came back from the swath grazing area (not fertilized in 20 years) was less than the corn ground from last year. I would up fertilizing 100# of N at a cost of roughly $80 per acre (applicator included). Seed was right around $80. Insurance was $20. Planter rent was $15. Sprayed twice at roughly $12 per acre each time (applicator included). All in I am around $250/acre.
We had a slow start due to lack of moisture, but a lot of heat made things really pop and the open fall helped. In the end my moisture insurance paid out more than what it cost to grow the corn. I am thinking we will make over 200 days per acre (maybe up to 250) and the cows have gained a lot of condition in just a couple of weeks.
Others have all said it will boost my soil OM, but based on soil tests we are pretty well at 7.50% OM on corn or swath grazing ground, so I think that might depend on your starting point. Anecdotally a lot of neighbours have seen numbers go up to 3 or 3.5%.
On another piece where we grew corn last year, I direct drilled oats/barley/rye/triticale and vetch with my international 6200 (definitely not a no till drill). It had not rained, so I did not even want to waste moisture or money by cultivating. This went in the last week of June and yielded 6000# of DM per acre, plus regrowth. This actually encouraged me to include corn in my rotation more than grazing the corn actually did. I think the fertility helps the next year and the disease break is very good.
We are still challenged with early spring grazing. I have taken lots of days on volunteer barley in the spring, but have yet to see a volunteer corn plant. My plan to tackle this hole in our grazing is as follows...
After corn, I will direct drill barley/oats, etc. as soon as I can drive out there. I will graze that in combination with our land that was swath/bale grazed. I will drill corn into the swath grazing ground around May 20th (depending on soil temp). Each year I may try to flip fields. I am also messing around with trying to get 3 cereal crops every 2 years, and intentionally grazing down pastures in early spring and then direct seeding oats with alfalfa and possibly some grass seed. We'll see.
Nicky
Well-known member
Interesting!
