In the planning of the shifts that are part of the productive strategy of the drums, has gained relevance make reservations on the basis of winter crops (mainly oats, ryegrass, barley and wheat). Even when the cost/ton of dry matter of the silage, wheat is between +15-17% higher than that of the silage maize, the idea is based on several reasons, such as to reduce the climate risk of spending the entire surface to crop summer (maize or sorghum), driving the napa freatica, and, in turn, release hectares for agriculture (soy, for example, that would be erected in almost first date) increasing the load.
The economic analysis concludes that requires planting a 40-60% more for the yields lower wheat with respect to corn, thanks to the investment/ha is -30% lower, in addition to the surface released to soy, you end up leaving a balance marginally higher than the tandem silage wheat/soy verus corn for silage. This diversifies the company's revenues outside of the circuit dairy. With respect to the sorghum, the differences are minor.
In order to achieve a food appropriate quality for the production of milk, it is important to define the optimal time of ensiling the crop. In the infographic that follows will find the details with the evolution of components of long-term quality of crop development and the "window" optimal to chop the crop (between the state of sheath thickened and lanky):
We understand that the infographic can be applied equally to the cultivation of barley, with the proviso that the window is optimal over a short time.
Source: own elaboration with data from the Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.
