The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Time running out for silage competition
Farmers have until October 17 to submit their best silage analysis for judging at this year’s AgriScot competition.
The organisers of the farm business event at Ingliston on November 16 are anticipating a bumper year for entries, as homeproduced forage becomes ever more critical to keeping feed costs down against a background of spiralling energy, feed, fuel and fertiliser prices.
Competition organiser Andrew Best encouraged farmers to submit samples and emphasised the need for forage analysis.
He said: “Long dry spells this summer will have affected certain regions more than others and will no doubt have had an impact on silage quality and quantity, and with volatile weather patterns likely to continue in the years to come, the need for conducting silage analysis grows increasingly important.
“For every farm across Scotland, it is important to have a baseline with your silage, so you know how you are best to ration it. Home-produced forage is still the cheapest feed you can have on any farm.”
The four categories for entries are beef clamp, dairy clamp, big bale and a young farmer class for those under 26, which can be submitted from any cut of silage. Entries will be whittled down to three finalists in each category, and the winner will be chosen following a live analysis by judges Hugh McClymont and Royal Highland and Agricultural Society chairman Jim Warnock, who said: “So much good grassland is lost by high infestation by aggressive weeds, as farmers tend to prioritise other land first. More time and effort must go towards the renewal of grass swards, but fundamental to that is soil analysis. By understanding and improving your soil pH you will get a much better sward, and this will translate into better value on fertiliser spend and higher-quality silage.”
Last year’s winner of the dairy clamp section, Daniel Ritch, from Brettobreck farm in Orkney, said: “Entering the competition was such a simple process, we just had to email over our analysis, and we have been delighted with the 10 acres of grass seed we won as a prize. We used variety Duart for a trial this year on a 12-acre park and put forage peas in it, which have been undersown with grass seed and it came out as a really good crop, 192 bales which will be this year’s winter protein.”
To enter, email abest@ watsonseeds.com.