Jason Felling wasn’t expecting the letter he received in the mail stating their farm, Felling Dairy LLC, was a finalist in World Forage Analysis Superbowl held at this year’s World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wis. “It was just a random sample taken by our seed agronomist. Nothing special about it,” says Felling.
As it turned out, the Sauk Centre, Minn., farm not only was a finalist, but also the brown mid-rib (BMR) corn silage sample was good enough to earn them Grand Champion Forage Producer in 2015. The winning entry topped 384 competitors and had a 30-hour neutral detergent fiber digestibility of 67.8 percent and milk per ton value of 3,731. Samples were judged based on 70 percent lab analysis and 30 percent visual analysis.
Felling Dairy is a third-generation family farm in Stearns County. These days, Jason and his wife, Marie, are in partnership with his parents and assume most of the management duties. His father (Cyril) and mother (Debbie) are still active on the farm and were the ones who journeyed to Madison to receive the forage award spoils. Twenty-five full- and part-time employees also work on the farm.
The dairy consumes all 1,600 crop acres for forage production, about 1,000 acres of corn silage and 600 acres of alfalfa. All other grain, straw and feed commodities are purchased for the 800 dairy cows that currently average 27,500 pounds of milk with a 3.9 percent fat test. Fellings also raise their own young stock. Cows are milked in a 28-stall carousel parlor that has served the farm since 2000.
Source – Farms.com