Our local USDA Emergency Manage- ment Board has estimated that as of Friday, Aug. 24, we have lost 50 percent of our corn yield and 35 percent of our soybean yield. It is a difficult task to estimate how much has been lost when you have fields that are very, very poor and others, because they have received a little more rain, don’t look too bad.

With the shortage of forages for livestock and the loss of production of some corn and soybean fields, some are asking how can we utilize these damaged fields to feed our animals?

With corn it is a bit easier to answer the questions. Chop it into silage and put it on a pile. Cover it with plastic and tarps and put tires or old round bales on the tarps to hold the covering in place.

Soybeans can be harvested for grain if the yield will be enough to more than cover the cost to harvest. If at harvest, soybeans can be sold for $7.50 per bushel, it would take only a little less than 5 bushel per acre to pay harvest expense. If you have livestock to feed however, the crop may be worth more than several bushels of beans if used as hay or silage.

The Butler County (Ohio) Cattlemen’s Assoc. observed soybeans being placed in a silage pile between two long tubes of hay at the Purdue University Feldun Research Center in Lawrence County, Ind. on Aug. 17. The piles were 48 foot long, 30 foot wide, and 6 feet deep.

If beans are at R6 stage (green seed that fills the pod cavity) or less mature, they should ensile without a problem, according to Bill Weiss, Ohio State University Extension dairy science specialist. If beans have matured beyond the R7 stage (R7 = one normal pod on main stem has reached mature pod color) the plant probably contains too much oil to make good silage. The R7 stage is the grey area. The majority of time the plants should ensile without a problem but there is reasonable risk of a poor fermentation, Weiss noted in the latest CORN newsletter. If you really need forage it probably is worth the risk, but if you are not desperate for forage, waiting and harvesting for beans may be a better option.

Soybeans can be ensiled in silage bales if they are fed soon after they are harvested. Weiss is a bit concerned about how well soybeans would keep in a silage bale.

Oil content is less an issue for hay than silage but the soybean varieties commonly planted for beans do not make good hay. Leaf shatter will be severe and since the leaves contain a substantial proportion of the protein and energy in the soybean plant, haymaking results in a large loss of nutrients and nutrient value.  Soybean hay, made from today’s hybrids, will probably not be of adequate quality for lactating dairy cows. If you are feeding beef cows (much lower nutrient requirements than a dairy cow), soybean hay may be an acceptable feed. Storage and harvest costs are almost always higher for silage than hay, but for soybeans, leaf shatter can be so severe that cost of soybean silage/ton of nutrients is less than cost of soybean hay/ton of nutrients. Even though soybean hay (on a cost per unit nutrient basis) will likely be more expensive than silage, it can still be a reasonable option for beef producers that lack silage making equipment and silage feeding equipment. The cost per unit of nutrients for homegrown soybean hay may be less than the cost per unit of nutrients for purchased beef quality hay.

The bottom line is, if beans are immature (R6 stage or less), silage is probably the best option. If beans are at R7 or more mature, waiting and harvesting as beans may be most profitable. Making beans into hay will probably result in lowest return but may still be more profitable than having to purchase other types of hay (for beef cows).

This farm news was published in the Aug. 29, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.