Poor summer prompts silage quality concerns

Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) is encouraging beef and sheep producers in Scotland and the North of England to get their silage analysed as soon as possible to give them maximum warning of potential problems they could face this winter.

For many parts of the country it has been a poor summer and according to SRUC livestock specialist Dr Basil Lowman, one of many things to have suffered is the quality of silage.

“Cool conditions reduce the grass growth, but not the date when seed heads emerge, resulting in low yields of quite stemmy material,” said Dr Lowman.

“For many, conditions then worsened still further, with increased and even excessive rainfall.

“The poorer the quality of the silage, the less cattle eat. This lower daily silage intake is further reduced by having to feed more barley if animal performance is to be maintained.

“In some cases concentrate requirements over a 180-day winter feeding period could be increased two or three fold compared with when good quality silage is available.”

“The poor summer will also result in lighter, leaner animals coming in at housing time.”

Calculating now what extra levels of cereals might be needed will allow any home-grown crops to be harvested specifically for animal feed, suggested Dr Lowman.

Grain could be harvested moist and then crimped, or even treated with urea, should conditions continue to be difficult at harvest which is already two weeks late in most parts of the country.

“Alternatively, deals can be struck with arable neighbours to benefit both,” he added.

“For example, combining headlands early as moist grain for stock feed can be a major benefit to growers resulting in a more uniform sample from the rest of the field and significantly reducing drying costs.”

SRUC recommends farmers contact their local adviser or consultant about sampling their pit.

SRUC also urges caution. With lots of wet silage made, many pits are bulging and slippery and it is important to take a safety-first approach.

Dr Basil Lowman.