Hello everyone,

Spring is almost on us, and we the folks at Byron Seed are very excited about a new growing season.  Byron Seed specializes in marketing forage seeds that “make a difference” to the grower.  The difference we are trying to make is an increase to the producer’s bottom line.   That takes various shapes: 1) Increase profitability, 2) improved herd health, longevity and persistence, 3) production efficiencies – (more meat/milk from less feed) and 4) more yield – matching correctly, forages to conditions (soil, fertility, zone, etc.).  With Byron Seed, we don’t think our service stops when you make a purchase.  We are committed to help with your farm’s success, offering advice from planting through harvest.  We even host many meetings throughout the year where profitable feeding strategies are discussed.  Customer satisfaction is our number one product, whether it be in the form of quality products, convenience of working with us, or providing service or knowledge.  Our staff is committed to YOU! 

So what’s new for 2007?  Well… within the management team at Byron Seed we have some changes and welcome additions.  1) Bob Eash from Hudson IN has accepted an expanded role as the North-East Territory Sales Manager.  He will be hosting meetings and working with dealers and customers in MI, IN, OH, WI & northern IL to promote Byron Seed products.  Bob’s many, many LONG years of experience with high quality forage products and dairy herd management (particularly dairy confinement and grazing) make him a sustaining resource for Byron Seed customers. 2) Dennis Brown joined the Byron Seed management team October 1^st.  Dennis is from Winchester, IN and brings a strong agronomy background as well as 11 years of sales experience to our team.  As South-East Territory Sales Manager he will host meetings and work with dealers from IN, OH, KY & TN to promote Byron products and Services.  3) Jeremy Lake graduated with his Masters Degree in  Crop Science in December 2006 from the University of Illinois.   Jeremy is from Carrollton, IL and brings a strong livestock/agriculture background to our business’ management team.  Jeremy is serving as a forage agronomist for Byron Seeds.  His education will help us accurately identify quality forage and assist our customers, with advice, to successfully grow high energy forage. 

For this spring to be a successful growing season, we know we need to start with good seed; but there is much more that goes into it than that.  We need moisture, sunshine, and fertility.  We need time, equipment and finances; and we need friendly folks, like the folks at Byron Seed, to help us with the myriad of decisions we need to make with each and every crop.  We welcome you to join us, the Byron group, for your spring seed needs.  If you do, we’ll see to it that your relationship with us doesn’t stop there 

Sincerely,

Samuel Fisher
Byron Seeds

Frost Seeding Clovers
 

Frost seeding clovers into pastures and hay fields is easy for low cost forage production and to improve pasture and hay quality.  The key management used to maintain clovers are: soil fertility, proper harvest, and occasional reseeding.  Frost seeding is inexpensive and, when done at the correct time and managed properly, very successful.  Frost seeding should be made between late January and late February when there is little snow and the soil surface is freezing and thawing.  The preferred management is to start preparing the site the summer before.  Take soil tests and apply lime, phosphorus, and potassium as needed.  A good liming and fertilizer program should keep your soil test in the top two inches of the soil at a pH above 6.0, P above 50 ppm, and K above 120 ppm. 

Seeding rates for red clover are 5 – 10  lb/ac.  Red lovers are bi-annuals, so you only need to seed every other year.  White clovers are more aggressive than red clovers, so the seeding rates are half as much with 2 – 5 lb/ac and seed as needed.  High seeding rates of white clover can choke out grass stands and increase the bloat potential in cattle.  It is important to use good quality coated seed. 

In frost seedings we are using livestock and frost action to control the competing vegetation, prepare the seed bed, cover the seeds, and provide seed to soil contact.  If there is not sufficient frost action after applying the seed, allow your cattle to walk the pastures to tread the seed into the soil surface.  Only do this when the soil is firm so that the cattle will not push the seed too deep.  Using a no till drill is still the best method. 

To maintain the legume in the stand continue to properly manage soil fertility and harvest timing and intensity.  The management need to maintain legumes in your pastures and hay fields will pay off.  Legumes will supply nitrogen to the grass to maintain yields.  This reduces the cost per ton of forage.  Legumes improve the quality of forage by allowing cattle to eat more forage.  Then they need less high priced protein and supplements.  The net return is an increase in the dollars available per cow after paying for feeding the cow. 

Red clovers are more drought tolerant than white clovers, and will yield as much as some alfalfas but not as high in quality, White clovers are the backbone of the grazing system.  They will not lignify in hot weather like red and alfalfa.  White produces more nitrogen than red.  The mix of the two will help supply nitrogen to the grasses.

Maximize Net Profits With Great Grass

Higher and more stable milk components, healthier rumens, reduced foot problems, little or no DA’s, lower vet bills, less culling, improved longevity, more net profit, and fewer day-to-day hassles, are just some of the benefits that believers in high-forage rations consistently report.  Sounds like a dairyman’s dream.  If you want to achieve this dream, you need to be feeding a high forage ration.

Let’s define a high forage ration as a ration where 60-70%, or more, of the dry matter intake is coming from forage.  The forage portion of the ration should never bye below 50%.  If you are feeding corn silage, consider only ½ of the dry matter as forage and the other ½ as grain.  Add up the lbs of dry matter coming from forage in the ration and divide by the total dry matter in-take to get your percent forage in the ration.  To calculate the expected dry matter intake on a dairy cow take 2% of the cow’s bodyweight + 1/3 of her daily milk production.  Are your cows on a high forage ration?  Are they eating their expected dry matter intake?  By increasing dry matter intakes and feeding a high percent of forage in the ration we can maximize milk production and create healthier cows resulting in greater net profits for our farms.  How do we achieve this?  Higher quality forages!

Most dairy farms feed corn silage and alfalfa hay and/or haylage as their primary forages.  We can increase the forage quality of our hay or haylage by interseeding some late maturing, highly digestible grasses with our alfalfas.  He problem with grasses in the past was that they matured before the alfalfa was ready to harvest.  This resulted in lowering our forage quality.  Today, we have later maturing varieties available from around the world that mature with alfalfa or even later.  These immature cool season grasses provide the lactating cow with energy from digestible fiber.  Grasses have a higher %NDFd than legumes.  Energy from digestible fiber is important for maintaining high production, low costs, and excellent herd health simultaneously.  The higher the digestible fiber is important for maintaining high production, low costs, and excellent herd health simultaneously.  The higher the digestibility of the fiber, the less starch that is needed from grains (We all know where corn prices are headed with all the ethanol plants being built).

Byron Seeds recommends the following grass mixtures to seed with alfalfas for higher forage digestibility levels.  Excellent options for high forage rations.

HAYLAGE PRO

A mixture of tetraploid perennial ryegrass and fine-leafed tall fescue.  Designed to mix with alfalfa for haylage or balage.  Not easy to dry for hay.  Very late heading varieties, very winter-hardy, excellent disease resistance, high yields and highest in digestibility.  High sugar levels help insure good fermentation.

ALFAPLUS

A new mixture of fine-leafed tall fescue, late maturing orchardgrass, and timothy.  Designed to mix with alfalfa for dry hay, haylage, or balage.  Very late heading varieties, high palatability, very high in digestibility, and drought tolerant.  Makes a soft hay.

ALFAMATE

A very popular mix of brome, late maturing orchardgrass, and timothy.  Designed to mix with alfalfa for dry hay, haylage, or balage.  Excellent yields and palatability.  Digestibility is very high. 

Try one of these or another of our line-up and find out what all the talk about high forage rations is about.