Many dairy farmers across the country are feeding meal to stretch out grass supplies, while drystock farmers may be somewhat reluctant to do so.
However, meal feeding can bridge the gap between what forage is required and what is available; meal feeding levels will depend on how much forage drystock farmers have.
At a recent fodder event, Teagasc’s Pearse Kelly said: “In the winter, we talked about stretching fodder, but we are nearly in a winter situation now. You need to be thinking about stretching the fodder that you do have. Feeding meals with that silage or hay at grass today makes sense.”
This may be something that is new to many farmers and care should be taken when doing so; meal can be fed under a fence. Because of ground conditions, coarse rations can be fed on the paddock; there is no need for troughs, he said.
Below is a table that Teagasc has used in the past – over the winter – and it indicates the level of meal that can be fed to weanlings, stores and suckler cows.
Source: Teagasc
Pearse highlighted that, given the year we are experiencing, it will be every bit as cheap to buy meal at today’s prices than it would be to purchase silage at €35/bale.
He also stressed that this table needs to be implemented from day one. He said: “You don’t start implementing it in a year like this in January or February when there’s no silage left.”