One of the last crops to come off the field in this part of the country is generally corn silage bound for local cattle producers.
As crops go corn silage is unique to regions that are heavily populated with cattle. George Lohues, who operates Coyote Flats Charolais with brothers Mark and John, said for the most part those who raise cattle grow silage.
“Silage is harvested wet, there’s a lot of extra weight.”
He said with freight being a big cost it makes sense to grow it close by where it can be trucked in.
While most producers grow their own silage there are some neighbouring farms which might also grow some silage for sale to their neighbouring cattle producers.
Lohues said corn silage is actually a fairly new crop in the region compared to other crops common to the area.
“Varieties have changed over the years.”
Lower heat varieties have made it possible for the corn silage to be grown in the County of Lethbridge over the last decade. For him the round-up ready seed makes management of the crop so much easier, in fact he said the crop actually helps to clean up his fields.
As a silage, Lohues said the corn actually harvests sunlight longer than a crop like barley so producers can get more out of the corn crop.
“It uses all the sunlight available to us in the area.”
A crop like barley is generally harvested in July and that leaves the land sitting idle into the fall.
“You’re almost wasting the sunlight,” he said.
Corn silage generally has some frost on it when it’s finally harvested in the fall.
The Lohues have grown corn for silage for about 11 years.
“On average we’re very happy with it.”
Another big advantage of growing corn is the cattle love to eat it. It’s a high quality silage.
“It was a tough start like every other crop,” he said of this year’s growing season.
In the end the corn handled the abundance of spring moisture well and when the heat kicked in later in the summer the crop took off. Now he is expecting to harvest an above average yield.
“There’s a nice crop out there now.”
“Everyone’s excited to take it off.”
The corn is showing up with large cobs, nicely filled out on top.
“That’s where most of the yield comes, the feed value.”
This year the Lohues are growing four varieties of corn. They are always trying new varieties in an effort to stay on top of the best genetics.
“It’s a very competitive market, the seed market.”
He makes his decision on which varieties to plant next year based on how the varieties have done the previous year. There is even a website that offers independent results gleaned from different farms and testing.
Lohues said different varieties are suited to different soils and available heat units.
Their operation, east of Coaldale and north of Chin, is actually similar in heat units to Vauxhall whereas Medicine Hat and Bow Island have higher heat units.
He even selects a different variety for land they have along the river bottom because it actually gets a higher heat unit.
Timing is critical because the corn silage is custom harvested and needs to be ready at the same time so it can all come off at the same time.
He generally likes to harvest in September but this year, with the wet and cool spring conditions, the crop is a little later and will come off in October.
The second generation family run operation includes 110 purebred Charolais and 3,800 head of cattle. They sell their bulls and ask for a chance to buy the calves back to put into their feedlot program.
“All the calves we bought last year we’re from our bull customers.”