Have you met your silage-making targets for 2022?

Forage expert Dr. Dave Davies is posing the fundamental question to farmers – have you met your silage-making targets for 2022?

He spoke at the first of the 2022, Alltech-hosted ‘Making Silage Sense’ webinar series.

According to the renowned forage scientist, the following targets should be set for the production of grass silage in any year:

Dry matter (DM): 30%;
Metabolisable energy (ME): 11.5–12.0;
Crude protein: 14%+.

However, he went on to make the point that it is possible to push protein levels significantly above the generally accepted 14% threshold, possibly up to 16%.

“By having the higher protein target, we are more likely to hit the more generally accepted specification,” Davies explained.

Silage survey

Davies then discussed the results of the 2022 Alltech silage survey for the island as a whole. Starting with dry matters, he confirmed that the average figure is coming in at around 30%.

“This is bang on target. However, there are very wide variations within this. The lowest dry matter figure comes in at 18%, with the highest value recorded at 70%,” he said.

“I am assuming that this latter figure relates to baled silages.”

According to Davies, it is important to assess the average figures at the top and bottom of the dry matter scales.

“The top 10% of silages have an average dry matter figure of 50%. Again, it is to be expected that these represent baled silages. However, the bottom 10% of silages analysed are averaging a dry matter figure that is below 20%.

“This will constitute a huge challenge for the relevant farms, in many respects.”

The forage scientists went on to point out that overall silage analysis results become more inaccurate as dry matters start to decrease.

“More importantly are the crude protein and ME results. The Alltech survey confirms an average crude protein figure of 12% and an ME value of 10.5 for the island of Ireland as a whole,” he commented.

“Both figures are below target levels. But it is well worth looking at the range of results. These confirm that the top 10% of Irish farmers have met their crude protein and ME targets in 2022.

“So this means we are setting targets that are achievable. And, of course, this has a major impact on the levels of animal performance that can be achieved from forages.”