The majority of winter-feeding programmes in Ireland are based on grass silage, and proper intake of high-quality silage is a key aspect in ensuring that animals perform.
High-feed-value silage lowers winter feed costs and boosts profitability during the housing season.
The quality of your silage determines how much meal is fed on your farm. Consequently, while planning your winter feed programme and choosing the most cost-effective concentrate supplement, knowing the quality of your silage must be the first step.
This is the approach taken by Co. Mayo farmer, Jarlath Ruane.
Farming system
Jarlath farms a beef enterprise in partnership with his father Austin near Claremorris, Co. Mayo. The pair are members of the DairyBeef 500, a sustainable dairy beef production programme, where they rear 80 calves each spring.
“All cattle are slaughtered off the farm at varying ages, usually from 21 to 24 months of age,” Jarlath explained.
“We also run a flock of 50 ewes, lambing in mid-February.
“We find the ewes and lambs are very good in helping to produce a close sward and the overall grassland management of the farm,” he said.
The main animal breeds reared on the farm are Friesian and Angus. Calves are reared on Golden Maverick Triple AAA calf milk replacer fed through an automatic calf feeder.
Jarlath and Austin focus on a number of key areas to improve animal thrive.
“We place a huge emphasis on rearing calves well to give them the best possible start in life,” Jarlath said.
“Good facilities, calf husbandry including a healthy environment and top nutrition is key to maintain and improve animal thrive.”
To complement this, the Ruanes place a huge emphasis on producing the best quality silage to feed their livestock to maintain thrive.
“From experience we know that if we produce high feed-value silage, it will raise animal performance and cut input costs,” the farmer added.
Grass and silage quality
In recent years, Jarlath has made great strides in improving grass quality and overall land management, with paddock layout and reseeding of under-performing pasture a key focus. The aim is to grow good quality grass and utilise as much of it as possible in the grazing season.
Due to the system and age variation of animals at slaughter, some are slaughtered off grass, while others are fed silage and concentrates, and finished indoors.
“We try to cut at the leaf stage, our first cut is usually in early to mid-May. All silage is tedded and wilted to a dry matter (DM) of about 30% and baled in the best possible conditions,” Jarlath explained.
Second cut silage usually takes place on the farm at the end of June.
In the past Jarlath has treated only some of his silage bales using Ecosyl 100, however he noticed a big difference in the quality of the treated and untreated silage.
“Using a silage additive like Ecosyl 100 is a great investment, as we often finish animals indoors, and the most cost-effective way to do this is by making good quality silage and minimising the requirement for supplementary feeding,” Jarlath said.
Ecosyl 100 gives the added insurance of better quality silage.
“By using Ecosyl 100 we have definitely improved the dry matter digestibility (DMD) of our silage. Last year our silage analysis showed a DMD of 75 – 80%. We test a number of silage bales from first cut and from second cut to get a more accurate reading,” Jarlath said.
“We notice the biggest advantage in our animals that we finish indoors, is that they are eating less meal which is a huge cost saving for us,” Jarlath highlighted.
Ecosyl 100 is ideal for a wide range of crops and ensiling conditions. It has been thoroughly proven to improve fermentation, animal performance and improve dry matter retention.
Ecosyl 100 contains MTD/1 – a special strain of bacteria which is only found in the Ecosyl range of silage additives.
To find out more about the Ecosyl range of proven silage additives, click here.
