Looked at the BMR corn today

The salesman milks 90 cows about an hour and a halfs drive from here. He said his cows averaged around 92.5 pounds/cow in the tank pretty much all summer. The corn was at least 2-3 feet over the cab of the 4x4 Ford half ton. Nice looking cobs and all super straight. We have 2 woods fields for next year totalling 17 acres so we're trying it in those 2 fields to start and using conventional in the remaining 40. We'll see that way how it does if the cows milk on it and decide weather to keep going with it or quit it. Well have lots of leftovers and 6 extra acres compared to this year so if it turns out to be a 17 acre disaster well weather it out ok.

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I have been eyeing the BMR but then some say there is a yield drag and standability issues, so I wonder what is better BMR or the floury corn hybrids?

There won't be any yield drag in the bulk tank.

As far as standability goes, I only had an issue one year, with a hybrid I wanted to try that wasn't readily available in our neighborhood. It did catch heck in two 60 mph winds about two weeks prior to chopping.

The ones marketed in the midwest will stand as good or better than a triple stack grain corn. The stalks are low lignin, which means they bend easier. Because they are more flexible, they don't break as easy. I had some in a field next to a Jung triple stack a few years ago... the Jungs guy (my cousin!) wasn't happy when I showed him how the BMR stood through a big wind, and 5-10% of his broke over.

It won't be a disaster. Do you have a way to keep it seperate, like a different silo, or a bag?

If it's anything like his it won't be no we store our corn in 40x115' piles,17 acres should be more than plenty to make its own pile

We tried it for several years 3-4 years ago. A neighbor wanted the corn silage from it. It had a sever yield drag in both tonnage per acre and grain yield per acre. It was worse the one drier year but was over 30 bushel per acre on grain yield and over 2 ton less when chopped for silage when averaged over the three years we grew it. The dairy guy could not see enough gain to justify the higher cost.

Here's how my math works around the "yield drag". With the BMR product, I can feed 2-3 lb more of DM than without, and then feed 2-3 lb less of corn grain. The silage yield is always more than a grain yield off an acre, right? So with BMR, despite it yielding a little less (2 ton as you said, of which 2/3 is water) it takes me less total acres to feed my cows, because more is being fed as silage (highest yield, no matter the hybrid vs a grain yield). In my case, it amounts to 15-20 less total corn acres (silage plus grain) to feed the herd due to the diet switch, even with a little yield drag.

I usually pick up some milk along the way, and components at the same time which increase the milk price. Feed efficiency increases as well. I did a trial on a new hybrid last fall, one of two commerical farms in the country. The new BMR (just introduced in the past two weeks for sale) lowered our income over feed costs 40-50 cents per hundred weight- we made more milk, fat ,and protein off less feed. Feeding less grain and more forage has a way of lowering the vet bill, too.

If you were growing it for the neighbor, and he'd paying by the ton, and you are looking at lost yield and revenue, it is an issue. You see less revenue, and he sees the benefit. And if he doesn't see the benefit (or tells you he doesn't because he doesn't want to pay more) there is a problem.

Since 2004 , I've compared the numbers here multiple times. I keep getting the same results. I've yet to have switching back to conventional pencil out- the cow performance always wins. If others don't use it, that's fine with me... just more competitive advantage for me.

Coonie Minnie: I think his main issue is generally poor production. IF I was betting 40-50 lbs. herd average. He just has grade cows and buys the cheapest bull he can find. Runs the bull with the cows so he has zero idea when they calve/freshen. Drying a cow up is kind of when he "feels" like it. Gluten pellets or anything else that would increase production is too expensive. LOL

He reads all this stuff and does not get that you need good production FIRST before all these other ideas. He thinks some thing like BMR corn will all of a sudden make him have 100 lbs. cows.

Supper nice fellow and hard worker but his key to success is inheriting 300 acres of flat black dirt. Then add in being so tight he squeaks when he walks. LOL