Cattle have been housed for some time now on many farms across the country, and with the early housing date this year, it is essential that farmers know both the quantity and quality of their silage.
ABP Food Group’s Advantage Beef Programme farm liaison team leader, Amie Coonan, has said that now is the time for farmers to do a fodder budget and take a silage sample, and that the advantage farm liaisons are available to help farmers with both.
She said that the first step is for farmers to complete a fodder budget. Where using bales, if they cannot be weighed, farmers should assume a weight of 700-800kg fresh weight/bale.
E.g., 120 bales weighing 700kg would have 84 tonnes of silage available.
Where farmers have a silage pit, they can multiply the length, width and height of their silage pit, and divide the answer by 1.4, assuming a dry matter of of 22%.
E.g.,: 25m x 14m x 4m = 1,400m3/1.4=1,000 tonnes.
The table below will help farmers to estimate silage required:
Coonan said: “Cattle that are receiving concentrates will eat less silage, but this table provides as a good estimate. For a more tailored plan, contact your ABP Farm Liaison officer.”
Understanding silage test results
“A silage analysis will cost less than €40 which is a very small cost when you consider the thousands of euros worth of feeding in your silage slab.
“Without knowing the quality of your silage, you could be over or under feeding your animals. Testing silage ensures the right silage is being allocated to each group with adequate concentrates to ensure optimum performance,” she added.
The table below will help farmers to understand what some of the key figures in their silage test actually means:
According to Coonan, sample results are coming back “very varied” this year.
“Silage cut in early May is showing excellent results, with high dry matter digestibility (DMD) and energy. Late May and early June silage is average quality, a lot of farmers got delayed with the wet weather which meant grass had gone strong. Similar results are being seen with second cut.”