Dairy Nitrogen Management Programs

Factors that influence the quality and quantity of crop production

Dairy forage and silage production is not something we should take lightly in today’s environment. We should not, and do not spend all our waking hours considering it.  However, having a more thorough understanding of the interactions between soils and plants can assist in increasing our total production of good quality and consistent forages and silage.

Growing plants exclusively on commercial fertilizer inputs or highly salted manures has given us insight into practices that in many cases have failed our expectations.  We now understand that a marriage between standard fertility and soil amendments to alter the overall balance of the soil is necessary to complete the fertility package that both plants and soils require.  In some cases a foliar feeding of the crop is needed to complete the needs of that crop to maximize its productivity.  Many times the soil is just not capable of providing the needs of the top growth fast enough or consistently enough to guarantee that nutritional requirements are being met to develop protein and carbohydrate deposition.  Simply stated, in some cases we get tonnage, and in some cases we get quality, but our objective is to get both. 

To accomplish this goal we need our soils to work with us, not against us, for maximum plant development.  If we cannot alter the soil system well enough to accomplish this, we add other elements to the crop foliarly to allow for the needs that are both visible and invisible.  Therefore we must know what plants we intend to grow, how they grow, and what the current balance of nutrition and the soil environment looks like.  Now factor in the environmental conditions at the time of critical crop growth and you have a more complete definition of agronomy.  This is the direction SummitGold takes in helping our growers become better and more effective crop and soil programmers.

Agronomic considerations                                 What are the limiting factors?

Soil quality and physical properties                         Excessive salt, water, or lack of soil air?

Soil biological activity                                             Limited organic matter deposition?

Current soil nutrient balance                                   Genetic selection?

Crop to be grown                                                   Knowledge of how crop grows?

Crop genetic selection                                           Fertilizer inputs?

Crop growth dynamics                                           Fertilizer timing?

Nutrient selection                                                  Soil biology and crop interaction?

Nutrient application timing

What influences can I have on crop forage quality development?

What things influence protein development?

How can I get more TDN into the forage?

What soil factors influence better forage quality deposition?

Do I have to sacrifice tonnage for quality in normal production?

Do I always need top quality in my production?

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