There is now a growing concern that silage stocks are starting to run low on many dairy and livestock farms across Northern Ireland.
A recent survey has confirmed that 20% of farmers in the north are concerned that they will not have enough silage to get them through the winter.
The work was carried out by the nutritional advisory team at United Feeds.
Driving this trend, is the exceptionally low dry matters (DM) of the forages made on many farms earlier in the year.
As a result, farmers are going through silos much quicker than had been anticipated some weeks ago.
On the back of this, dairy and livestock farmers are being strongly advised to assess their winter forage stocks as a matter of priority.
Recent silage analysis figures, again, compiled by United Feeds, has also led to a re-assessment of the average quality associated with second-cut silages made in Northern Ireland during 2023.
Dry matter
Initial analysis trends pointed to average DM coming in on a par with 2022 at 29.2%, and ME’s averaging 10.9.
However, these figures related to silages made before the beginning of July. Thereafter, the rain just kept on falling with the result that farmers and contractors had little or no opportunity to wilt grass effectively.
The latest figures on second cuts confirm the following average trends: dry matter values have fallen to 25.3%; NDF values have increased to 52.8%; D Values have fallen to 65.1% and MEs have fallen to 10.7%.
These figures are all relative to those made available by United Feeds at the end of October.
The reduction in DM values is highly significant. Within a standard dairy feeding system, it is envisaged that forage DM intakes should be in the region of 12kg/cow/day.
With many DM less than 20%, this equates to a fresh weight intake of 60kg+.
The reality is that on many farms cows cannot physically consume these levels of silage due to the feed space allocation, palatability, or time available to eat between milkings.
Consequently, overall dry matter intakes have been compromised, a factor that has a direct impact on daily milk yields, milk solids, cow condition and cow health/fertility. Heifers or freshly calved cows are typically the most vulnerable groups here.
Another figure on current silage reports that is causing concern which is being borne out on farms is that of the Ash content.
The new, second-cut figures also confirm an average ash content of 9.6%.This value points to soil contamination in many of the forages made this year.
This contamination is likely because many of the silages were made at a time when ground conditions were extremely challenging.
Soil contamination can lead to poor fermentation and a predisposition to mycotoxin growth within forages.