[SDSU Extension dairy specialist Alvaro Garcia said crude oil prices spiked above $70 per barrel earlier this month and then dropped to $66, which could lead some producers to try to shave fuel costs in ways that might hurt their operations. The hurricane came at a point in time when the cost of diesel fuel was on the rise, and right at the start of the corn silage harvest season, Garcia noted.] Producers need to consider that trying to save a few dollars worth of gas when ensiling their crop could later cost them hundreds making up for forage quality losses. The objective when we ensile any crop is to maintain its quality as close as possible to that of the original forage, ... We will never be able to have a better product than what we started with and we can only expect to reduce losses to a minimum. Alvaro Garcia