Have you enough fodder stored up for the winter period ahead?
HAVE you got enough fodder for this winter? From the experience of last winter and this spring the response to this question may be, ‘can you ever have enough?’
An awful lot has been said and talked about fodder these last few months, but it is probably no harm at this stage of the year to establish where your farm is in terms of fodder stocks for the winter ahead, particularly as we are after a very good dry spell of weather which has given a lot of farmers across the country the opportunity to wrap up those additional valuable silage bales.
It is important now that farmers establish the fodder situation on their own farm. Is there currently a surplus or deficit on the farm?
This can be done relatively quickly by completing a fodder budget based on the number of stock you will be carrying into this winter and on into next spring.
It is also important that a reserve of at least one month is built into your budget.
Doing this task for your farm – with an advisor or consultant or in a group – can help relieve some of the stress associated with a fodder deficit situation that we saw this past spring and we do not want a repeat of this again.
It is when the fodder situation on the farm is established that you can decide on what stock numbers you will be wintering and what additional feed you require, if any, or you may have a surplus after the summer which in itself will raise the question of what you are going to do with it.
If fodder supplies are tight, then now is the time to start planning on how to make up the shortfall.
Will you try to purchase more silage/ hay; will you sell some additional stock; or will you be able to fill the gap with some additional concentrates?
Aside from sourcing additional feed, other issues that need to be addressed include checking how the farm finances are looking; maintaining cash flow; and ensuring you have enough bedding where straw is in scarce supply.
Of course, there are some situations where farmers do not conserve any forage on their own farms and purchase in all of their forage requirements for the winter in the form of silage or hay.
In this situation, completing a forage budget is also extremely important to establish how much you need to purchase, especially where prices have increased compared with previous years; and also to ensure that the forage is going to be available to purchase, as farmers who previously would have been selling surplus fodder may be replenishing supplies themselves this year.
We are able to quantify the dietary requirements for the different categories of livestock on the farm – from the milking dairy cow to the dry suckler cow and the growing weanling – but unless you know the quantity of fodder available on the farm now it is very difficult to tailor a plan that will suit their needs where supplies are tight.
In summary, if we are to learn anything from this past spring, now is the time to assess your fodder supplies and requirements by completing a fodder budget so that an appropriate feeding plan can be put in place to maximise the use of the stocks that are available to you and to avoid unnecessary stress later in the year.