Our June Shop Talk focused on the benefits of diversifying silage using cover crops to improve dairy feed quality. A featured farmer panel—including Brody Stapel, Dan Jacque, and Mark Loehr—shared insights from on-farm trials, highlighting different approaches to interseeding while maintaining shared goals of reduced tillage and less reliance on purchased inputs.

Additional presenters provided valuable context and research-backed information:

• — Maggie Hoffman (Agri-King) offered a dairy feed analysis update from diversified silage samples.
• — Derrick Raspor and Matt Brugger (WI Demo Farm Network) discussed herbicide considerations when interseeding cover crops.
• — Tricia Verville (Sand County Foundation) explored ways to increase crop diversity beyond the typical corn-alfalfa rotation.
• — Dr. Jose Franco and Dr. Kenneth Kalscheur shared research on the nutritional value of winter cover crops.

Check out the full article here for a deeper dive into the project and on-farm results:
https://www.agproud.com/articles/61789-interseeding-cover-crops-in-corn-silage-systems-impacts-on-forage-quality-and-soil-health

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