Test your silage – and be ready to ration feed – warns expert

While farmers have long been urged to have their silage quality tested, knowing its analysis is likely to be even more important this year.

After the 2017 season showed lower quality than expected it looks like much of this season’s crop could be of higher quality than farmers realise, according to SAC Consulting.

And while this might come as welcome news for producers with low stocks, the college said that this too could cause problems for cattle keepers – and warned farmers to calculate stocks and ration carefully.

Samples tested so far had indicated that this year’s silage had a significantly higher dry matter content, along with higher energy and a good fermentation – meaning cattle were likely to want to eat more.

College ruminant nutritionist Mary Mcdowell said that, as an example, a 600kg bale at 35 per cent dry matter equated to 210kg dry matter compared to just 138kg for a bale with just 23 per cent dry matter.

Feeding this high quality grub to a 650kg dry spring calving beef cow could lead to over-eating energy and protein and excessive winter weight gain – resulting in difficulty at calving.

Mcdowell also said that over-eating would use up supplies quicker – adding that it had never been more important to target rations carefully to ensure scarce forage supplies were used effectively.