ECONOMICS OF FORAGE PRODUCTION WITH EMPHASIS ON MECHANIZATION

摘要

Reduction in hours of labor to harvest and feed the alfalfa crop, improved quality, and reduced harvest losses are important advantages of haylage over hay. Harvest and storage time were reduced by 24 to 30 percent for the haylage operation for dairy herds of 40 to 160 cows. Daily time to feed all forages was reduced from 25 to 60 minutes per farm when haylage and no hay was fed.nA haylage operation added from $185 for the 40-cow operation to $85 for the 160-cow operation to investments per cow for harvesting and storing the alfalfa crop. A minimum of 200 tons is needed to make investments in a haylage program profitable. Even then, net yields must be increased by at least 10 per¬cent and the haylage operation must be in conjunction with a corn silage oper¬ation to make investments economical.