Helena Products Help Dairymen During Challenging Times

Milk prices continue to be far lower for dairies than the record high levels in 2014.  In 2014, dairymen received over $24.00 per 100 pounds (about 9 gallons of milk).  Today, Class III milk is about $13.00 to $13.50 per hundred pounds, while it costs $4.00 to $6.00 of feed alone per dairy cow.  As a result, dairymen have to rely on other tools to support their challenging businesses.  In today’s market, it is so important to have products that can save the dairy money while producing the best feed/ton/acre and the best silage with the highest digestible nutrients/cost/acre and the highest pounds of milk/ton/acre.

With the right products at the right time, Helena can help dairymen improve their ROI with proven solutions. In replicated trials, CoRoN® 25-0-0 and Megafol® applied with herbicides at V6 produced significant gains in yield.  CoRoN 25-0-0 is a controlled-release foliar fertilizer that provides a uniform supply of nitrogen for weeks.  Megafol foliar nutrient supplement strengthens crop vitality and helps crops recover more quickly from growing stresses with a nutrient solution of nitrogen and potassium and a blend of plant extracts.

A replicated trial on a premier dairy in the Merced, California, area was evaluated in 2016 on corn silage.  The grower standard was compared to the grower standard plus CoRoN and Megafol applied at V6.  The grower standard yielded 40.5 tons per acre, whereas CoRoN 25-0-0 at 1 gallon/acre and Megafol at 1 pint/acre yielded 47.6 tons per acre, resulting in a 7.1 tons silage/acre increase over the grower standard.  When the grower standard yielded 59.7 tons of total digestible nutrients, and CoRoN 25-0-0 and Megafol yielded 67.9 tons, there was an 8.2 ton increase over the grower standard.  Of great importance, the pounds of milk per ton produced was 2,350 pounds for the grower standard, while 1 gallon/acre CoRoN 25-0-0 and 1 pint/acre Megafol yielded 2,990 pounds milk per ton of silage. This equaled 640 pounds of additional milk from a ton of silage.  Hopefully, the milk price will rebound in the near future. In the meantime, dairymen are realizing the importance of products such as CoRoN and Megafol and the knowledge of Helena Chemical Company to help them improve results and reach a greater ROI.

- Don Bandoni, Product Manager