Forage Profile: Andy and Jessica Schmitt

Describe your farm and facilities. We milk 120 Holstein cows in a double-10 parlor twice a day. They are housed in a freestall barn with sand bedding.

What forages do you harvest? We harvest dry hay (large and small squares), grass, oatlage and corn silage.

How many acres of crops do you raise? We grow 70 acres of corn for chopping and 100 acres of grass and alfalfa.

Describe the rations for your livestock. Our lactating cows are fed a heavy corn silage and haylage diet. We typically run around 75% forage on a dry matter basis. Our dry cows are fed a mix consisting mainly of grass hay that we grow to control consistency, with some corn silage and an anionic protein mix.

What quality and quantity do you harvest of each crop? Our corn silage runs around 27 tons per acre. For alfalfa, we typically do five cuttings, cutting every 28 days, with varying quantities each crop. Our typical relative feed value ranges from 200 to 310.

Describe your harvesting techniques for alfalfa and corn silage. Corn silage is chopped at one foot off the ground with a forage harvest or with a kernel processor. Alfalfa is cut and then chopped 24 hours later each time.

What techniques do you use to store, manage and feed your forages? All our forage is stored in ag bags. It is treated with inoculate to control heating. Forages are fed with a total mixed ration mixer.
Dry hay and grass bales are stored in a shed.We plant, grow, harvest and store all of our forages.

How does quality forage play in the production goals for your herd? We work to push the limits of what is possible from a dairy cow. By increasing our forage quality, we reduced our feed purchases while hitting an over 2.0 feed efficiency. Cows are healthy and staying in the herd for 6-7 locations, allowing us to reduce the number of replacements needed.

What management or harvesting techniques have you changed that have made a notable difference in forage quality? For alfalfa, cutting five crops and increasing cutting height has made a big difference. For corn silage, going to a conventional seed variety has resulted in a production increase.

Describe a challenge you overcame in reaching your forage quality goals. A challenge with conventional corn is finding an herbicide program that works and trying to manage pests. We worked with our local cooperative to come up with a program that works for us.