Grand Valley Fortifiers
486 Main St. E N1R 5S7 Cambridge, ON, Canada

We'd like to wish you and your family a safe and happy Thanksgiving weekend! We will be closed Monday October 12th to observe Thanksgiving Day but will open Tuesday the 13th at 8:00am to serve you.

During this time of the year we see a number of producers running low on their corn silage inventory. Feeding green chopped corn silage can be a solution if you are running short or are out of corn silage. You can decrease your feed cost because high quality green chopped corn silage may replace some more expensive feed ingredients such as haylage, purchased hay or by-products. Daily feed intake may increase with green chopping due to an increase in palatability, which may in...crease milk production. How to make green chopping successful: - Monitor the crop each day, take dry matters frequently and adjust when making the ration. - Harvest only enough green feed for each day so that the feed is not left in a pile where it could heat and spoil. - As the weather is changing all the time, have a backup plan with your nutritionist for what to feed the cows if it is raining and you are unable to chop. - Fresh green chopped immature corn silage feeds out more like grass haylage than corn silage because the plant is high in sugars and the kernels are not yet filled with starch. Adjust the ration when the corn silage is green, by adding more starch to the ration with dry corn or HM corn and monitor the grain content of the silage as it matures. Like any feed change it is good to make a gradual transition. If possible, green chopping before you run out of fermented corn silage is a good idea and mixing the two together will be the best option. If this is not an option and increasing the amount of fermented haylage or baleage is possible, then this should be done instead. If the corn has been drought stressed, be careful feeding it as it potentially could be high in nitrates while in green form before fermenting in the silo.

Dealing with heat stress in your barn? Check out the video below where GVF Dairy Specialist, Margaret Currie goes over 4 helpful tips for dealing with heat stress in your barn.

When opening a bunk, the supply of oxygen and air can cause heating and dry matter losses. Yeasts and molds use oxygen to rapidly increase their cell totals and can cause unnecessary spoilage, both seen and unseen. This silage may also become less palatable to the cow, decreasing feed intakes and resulting in loss of production. In warm summer months, losses in hay crop silage can easily be as much as 15-20% of your total dry matter and this can be even higher for corn silage. These 4 tips can help you manage these summer issues in bunk silo’s and keep your feed fresh, cool and palatable all summer long:

Our nutritionists do their utmost every day to formulate a perfectly balanced ration. However, in practice we often see differences between formulated rations and the feed in the bunk. One of the main reasons for this is unwanted selection behaviour by the cows, however, the mixing and use of the TMR mixer can also influence this. Here are some tips for success with a TMR mixer: Ensure scales are working properly Do not over fill mixer Follow SOP for sequence of ingre...dients in TMR Mixing time should be less than 5 minutes and bring moisture of TMR over 50% by adding water. Ensure knives are sharp Have a magnet in the mixer to catch foreign metal objects Chop hay or straw outside of TMR mixer by using a hay buster Clean out TMR regularly If you have any questions, or would a second opinion, contact your local GVF Dairy Specialist to learn more! See more