mixed forage?

jon f mn

Well-known Member
Anyone ever mix 2 types of forage together at cutting? Jeff has some Pease and barley mix for forage and is thinking about putting it in the same pit as the corn silage. He's thinking about cutting a couple loads of corn, then one of the Pease and barley so its all mixed in the pile. The problem being that there won't be enough of the Pease and barley alone to make a good stack. I've seen corn put on top of hay before with good results, but never mixed together. Just wondering if anyone else has done it before.
 
In the early 60's my dad planted corn, beans and sorgum in same row. We only had a one row silage chopper. Our biggest tractor was an MD. It didn't have enought Pto HP and it didn't go slow enough. He borrowed his broghter tractors. Finally got a New ford 6000 with SOS, which was a junk tractor. Dad only tired the multi planting a few years and gave up. Not sure why. The combination of growing all 3 together produced a lot more silage.

Try a few acres. Hope it works for you.
 
The pease and barley is a common forage crop mix here, and Jeff's is ready to cut if it ever dries enough to get in the field. I was questioning mixing that with corn.
 
We always mixed third crop hay with corn silage. Half load hay and switch to the corn chopper and finish filling the wagon. This was for a tower silo and the cows loved it.
 
Dad did that too, way back in the mid 50's. Corn in one box on planter, sorghum in the other, so when planted it alternated 2 rows of each. guy that did the chopping had single row machine, so it made layers in the wagon. Blower at the upright silo mixed it well. Cows really liked it.
Willie
 
Don't know why it wouldn't work. I have planted the pea/barley mix before always chopped it and put it in an ag-bag alone. I think any juice from the corn silage would be soaked up by the peas and barley and be a good feed!
 
Corn/sorg makes a lot of fodder, but is a lower energy feed. Maybe ok for wintering beef cows, but not dairy. End use must be considered.
 
Several neighbors mix hay with corn for silage. Some put a load of hay in every other or every third load, some partly fill the chopper box with corn, then finish filling it with hay (or hay first). I've considered doing it, but have never had a second chopper available... and don't want to spend that much time swapping heads.
 

if Jeff is milking cows a potential drawback is getting a good sample for the forage specialist to use in balancing the ration. if he is running beef it wouldn't be so critical.
 
Thanks for the replies! I was worried the 2 together might not cure properly together. Sounds like thats not a problem.
 
We grow a lot of crop silage here in Northern Ireland....we never switch from field to field...we just put in a layer of what ever and the next layer on top.... I grew straight peas and straight wheat for silage and put grass silage on top.....three layers ...no problem....the secret is to feed the pit fron top to bottom every feed and not layer by layer......I used a TMR feeder but my neighbours don't bother with one and it works OK.
Sam
 

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