A big ‘Thanks’ to all Kings customers who submitted forage samples for the first ever PA Forage Analysis Competition. Kings had multiple top finishers and as well as winners in multiple categories. The Pennsylvania Dairy Summit Forage Analysis Competition is hosted by the Penn State Extension Dairy Team, Professional Dairy Managers of Pennsylvania, Dairy Business Communications, Cumberland Valley Analytical Labs and the Center for Dairy Excellence. For feedback regarding this year’s competition or inquiries regarding next year’s contest, please contact Rebecca White with the Penn State Extension- Dairy Team at 814-863-3917 or [email protected].
Kings AgriSeed’s Products Winners
Conventional Corn Silage
1st – Mahlon King Gap, PA- MC 4050
3rd – Clayton Shirk Kutztown, PA– MC 6580
Forage Sorghum Silage
1st – Elvin Wise Blain, PA- AF 7201
2nd – Paul Levan, Jr. Hamburg, PA- AF 7401
3rd – Duane Graybill, Thompsontown, PA- AF 7401
Mixed Perennial
2nd – Daniel Good McAlisterville, PA– King’s Haymaster
Perennial Legume
3rd – Alvin Jacob Peachy Belleville, PA-
KF PLH 322 + Kora Tall Fescue
Cool Season Annual
1st – Marlin Hoover Elliotsburg, PA- Forage Maker Oats
2nd – Danny Beiler Christiana, PA- Marshall Ryegrass
A Word from the Winners
Mahlon King (King’s Dealer)
Lancaster County, PA
1st Place Winner for Conventional Corn Silage
Crop: MC 4050
“Cows have done real well on the 4050 corn silage. Milk production has increased even when we fed it green. Just the fact that the cows are doing well on it tells me it’s good quality, even before I look at the numbers.”
Marlin Hoover
Green Park, Perry Co., PA
1st Place Winner with Cool Season Annual Silage
Crop: Forage Maker 50 Oats
“I like this crop because it fits well as a double crop following wheat. I combine the wheat, and then I have about a month’s time to plaster the field with liquid dairy manure. I cleaned the field up with Round-Up, drilled the oats at 100 lbs/A on August 14, and then could forget about them until late fall. Despite very dry weather last fall, I was still pleased with the yield. The bales were fed to the dairy replacement heifers, free choice, along with TMR.”
Elvin Wise
Blain, Perry Co., PA
1st Place Winner with Forage Sorghum
Crop: AF 7201 Forage Sorghum
“We grow forage sorghum where we can’t grow corn because of severe deer pressure. We feed it to our milking herd, replacing about half of the corn silage in the TMR mix. The cows like it. When we planted it, we drilled it on 30” rows at the recommended seeding rate of 6-8 lbs/A. Then we planted corn between those rows at 28,000 population, so we had 15” rows with every other row corn/forage sorghum. Around the 10th of July, when we side-dressed with 60 units of N, the corn and sorghum rows looked ‘OK.’ However, by harvest time, the corn was gone. The deer ate the corn away, but left the sorghum. It still yielded about 16 ton per acre. We used Silo King inoculant/preserver at harvest. One issue with the 7201 was standability. The crop was down and we had to drive a certain way with our Claas (Kemper head) chopper to get it. This year, we’re thinking of mixing it with the dwarf sorghums, instead of with corn.” Note from Kings: This is not a typical management practice and the sample could have contained a small amount of corn silage.”
Speak to an expert at King’s AgriSeeds now at 1-717-687-6224 or email us at [email protected].