Silage remains in the diets of many herds at the moment, with grazing conditions continuing to pose a significant challenge.
The focus now needs to be placed on getting first cut silage for 2024 growing on farms and supplies in silage pits replenished.
Speaking during a Teagasc webinar earlier this week, research officer with Teagasc, Michael Egan outlined the recommendation for farmers.
He highlighted the impact that delaying first cut and allowing the crop to ‘bulk up’ has on overall silage yields.
Fertiliser
Speaking on the webinar, Egan said: “There is a lot of empty silage pits and we need to get a good yield of silage back into the yard to build reserves.”
He said that this is a year where we need to get an increased yield and a high nitrogen (N) response.
Egan said somewhere between 80kg and 100kg (80units) of total N to grow a first cut crop.
This N can be made up by a combination of slurry and chemical fertilisers.
He said it is important to get as much fertiliser out as soon as possible to get high growth rates and capture some of that April growth when it arrives.
For phosphorus (P) you will need 3kg/expected tonnes of dry matter (DM), so a 6t crop will required 18kg of P – some of this will be met by slurry. Potassium (K) 25kg/t of DM expected to be harvested.
First cut silage
On blocks of land used for silage with heavy covers currently on them, Egan said to be careful spreading slurry on them now.
He said that too much damage may be caused to the sward and that the requires of this fields will have to be met by chemical fertiliser – depending on the P allowance.
He said if you have no P allowance, you will have to just get the N and K spread and put the slurry out after the first cut to grow the second cut crop.
Egan said we can not compromise timings at this point and we can’t not compromise yields either.
Although with grazing ground you can manipulate your fertiliser spreading dates and strategies, he can we cannot with silage ground and farmers need to get it closed off as soon as possible to get an early first cut.
Egan said: “By bulking up your first cut, it hugely compromises the yield from second cut.”
Egan advised farmers to get the fertiliser spread and your first cut crop growing, conditions allowing.
He told farmers they should be aiming to harvest their first cut in the third week of May: “Try and get our first cut silage in the first week of May, so we can get a good second cut.”
He also highlighted the impact of delaying first cut has on the quality of feed, with good quality silage need for milking cows during the shoulders of the year.
Covers on fields should allow for a targeted harvest date of May 25, according to Egan and this will have the added benefit of getting May growth rates into second cut growth.
“We need to get May growth rates into second cut silage, so waiting until early June to cut it – means we are not getting May growth rates and that is going to reduce our second cut yields.”
When closing up silage ground slurry should be spread first, followed by chemical N – according to Egan around four days of break between the two should be sufficient in current weather conditions.