Your corn silage is more than just a feed source—it’s a key driver of herd performance and farm profitability. Each season presents new challenges, making it essential to fine-tune your silage management practices, including harvest timing, fermentation, and feed formulations. By using farm data, you can make smarter decisions that maximize the value of your silage and support your herd’s health.
Balancing inventory and timing for new crop silage
A common challenge on dairy farms is managing the transition from carryover silage to the new crop. While having enough carryover silage to allow full fermentation of the new crop is ideal, it's not always possible. Fresh silage requires several weeks to ferment, and feeding it too soon can lead to reduced milk production, higher incidence of health problems like ruminal acidosis, and spoilage losses.
Here’s where your farm data becomes important. So whether you’ve been recording by hand, or using a tool like Connecterra’s timeline to see all major farm events across key categories in one timeline, you can analyze inventory trends from the last few years.
Look at how different feeding timelines have affected milk production and herd health in the past. This data can help you fine-tune the transition period, even when resources are tight. Then use that information to identify the optimal time to introduce the new crop. For example, sometimes, mixing carryover silage with new crop in a controlled ratio can smooth the transition without compromising herd performance.
Using data to track fermentation and performance outcomes
Fermentation is an important phase that determines silage quality, but the process can vary depending on weather, harvest timing, and bunker conditions. Instead of relying on guesswork, you can use data to track the effect of managed harvest and your farm’s performance.
Connecterra’s Farm Timeline allows you to track key events such as harvest dates and fermentation periods. By analyzing this data, you can identify patterns and adjust your practices. For example, if wet conditions during an early harvest previously led to spoilage, you can modify your approach, like improving bunker sealing or using additives.
You can then use the impact tracker to link silage batches to health outcomes in a matter of days. If a new batch correlates with increased health issues, you can quickly adjust rations or use more carryover silage to address the problem.
Continuous learning from past seasons
One of the most powerful uses of farm data is to continually refine your approach season after season. As a dairy farmer, you know that no two years are the same, but by analyzing several years’ worth of data, patterns emerge that can guide your future decisions.
If you’re using Connecterra, our impact tracker and farm timeline can help you with this process. The timeline gives you a clear overview of farm events and operational changes in chronological order. And the impact tracker enables you to quantify the impact of any change you made. Use these two features to identify patterns across multiple years that reveal best practices and highlight areas for improvement.
For example, if you notice that gradual incorporation of new silage yields consistently better results than abrupt changes, you can adjust your transition strategy. Or, you may find that silage treated with a specific inoculant performs better than another. These insights could prompt you to prioritize better packing techniques and fermentation boosters for silage harvested in wetter conditions.
Use your data for better silage and better results
Leverage your farm data to optimize your corn silage management, improve herd health, and your dairy farm’s profitability. To achieve this, analyze patterns from previous seasons and use technology to track event changes and outcomes.
The Connecterra Platform empowers you to make informed decisions that will keep your silage quality—and herd performance—at its peak. Try out our software 60-days for free, no credit card required.
