ABS Ireland recently sponsored three clinics on local dairy and beef farms in conjunction with Agri Merchants & feed millers J. Grennan & Sons Ltd to advise livestock farmers how to improve silage quality, crop yields and how to minimise waste during the storage period.
As you know last spring silage was in short supply and quality was poor so these clinics are very topical as farmers are planning ahead to conserve land for silage, will be applying slurry to fertilise same and considering the benefits of using a quality silage additive to improve preservation, enhance quality and palatability and to minimise wastage in storage.
According to Cormac Guinan, the ABS Ireland representative, “good-quality silage is the most cost-effective feed for cows and cattle over the housing period.
“A fast fermentation is the key to optimising the quality of your silage. The faster grass silage ferments, the more essential nutrients will be retained.”
According to ABS Ireland, the Powerstart silage additive contains a fructan degrading, lactic acid producing bacterial bug called AberF1, which can access 100 per cent of the sugars in the grass conserved for silage.
The AberF1 bacteria ensures that the grass is preserved with a super-fast fermentation thereby producing highly nutritional, palatable silage livestock love to eat, it says.
ABS also says the Powerstar improves body condition and boosts daily live weight gain by up to 27 per cent in finishing stock; it can lead to a reduction in days to finishing cattle by an impressive 29 days; and it says Powerstart reduced calving interval by up to 10 days on a trial of 25,000 dairy cows.
Peter Ging, Ballycider Herd, Co Laois noted: “I have been using Powerstart silage inoculant for the past 10 years. Powerstart excels in preserving silage in both wet and dry conditions. Forage is highly palatable and my cows just love it.”
Pictured at a recent pit silage demo at the farm of Jody Carroll were: Ray Bracken, Tullamore, Brian Delaney and Shane Gonoude from Grennans and Matt Moore, Croghan, Co Offaly