Brian Reidy: Grass silage production for next winter must be a priority
Over the spring, a lot of silages that were fed had a detrimental effect on animal performance if sufficient concentrates were not fed.
It’s the beginning of April, and first-cut silage is just over a month away for those aiming to take an early cut of top-quality grass.
Producing sufficient silage for next winter and aiming to make quality must be a priority over the coming weeks. This message never changes, as good-quality silage is cheaper to balance and gives better animal performance.
Given the current price of concentrates, silage quality will be essential to achieving cost-effective animal performance next winter.
Having tested a large number of 2024 silages for customers throughout the last six months, the aim must be to produce significantly better grass silage than last year. Over the spring, many silages that were fed had a detrimental effect on animal performance if sufficient concentrates were not fed.
As we all know, grass silage is getting increasingly expensive every year. Fertiliser, fuel and machinery costs continue to rise year on year.
Grass silage quality can be variable due to poorer weather, delayed cutting date and grassland management/reseeding issues. Too much poor or average silage in the pit will, in fact, increase overall production costs.
Producing silage from rented/leased land has had a hugely detrimental effect on silage quality in Ireland over the last number of years. This ground tends to have older awards, and unless in a long-term lease, is not being reseeded often enough, limed or having P&K indices maintained sufficiently.
If we all think about it, there have been many reasons over the last 10/12 years why less reseeding has been done. Long winters cause empty pits, droughts, high fertiliser prices, low milk and beef prices.
First-cut grass silage will typically cost approximately €45-€50 per tonne or €450-€500 per acre when you include reseeding, liming, fertiliser, weed control and contractor charges. Delaying the cutting date while perhaps increasing volume will result in poorer feed and increase the cost per unit of energy utilised by the animals being fed.
Remember that you will reduce the tonnage of silage you produce if you cut earlier, but that is not necessarily a bad thing, as younger grass will result in better quality silage, which has higher energy and digestibility.
Your cutting date is obviously all down to weather, ground conditions, stocking rate, contractor availability, units of nitrogen applied, etc.
The amount of nitrogen is a major issue in Irish grass silage production. Many overuse nitrogen and this delays the cutting date and also can prevent good preservation. If you haven’t put out fertiliser for silage yet, then you must make sure that you apply it according to your intended cutting date.
For those that have split their application, assess growth before applying the second split. You may be better to put out less than you had intended as recent growth rates will not have used a lot of the first spread yet. Use soil results to determine if P&K are required to ensure efficient use of the Nitrogen you apply.
How much silage are you going to be carrying into next winter? What is the quality like? Is it in bales or in a pit? Recent years have taught us that we must make sure that we produce more silage than our requirements.
Build in a 20-25% safety valve to provide for a longer winter due to poor weather and poor growth. We have had long winters and summer droughts recently, so you never know when you will need extra silage. Try to make it good.
Based on a silage of 22%-25% dry matter.
- Dairy cows will require approximately 6 to 7 tonnes of silage over a typical winter season. This will cover late lactation, the dry period and early lactation. The availability of Maize silage or whole crop will reduce silage requirements.
- Dry suckler cows will typically consume 40kg-45 kg silage per day. This will depend on whether you are feeding straw and/or concentrates or not.
- Sucklers with calves will consume 50kg-55kg of silage per day, along with some concentrates to provide sufficient milk for their calf and help them to return to cycling.
- Weanlings will eat in the region of 2% of their own body weight in dry matter, of which silage will usually make up 80%.
- Stores will eat mostly silage during winter feeding, 80%-85% of their total feed intake.
- Finishers may not be so dependent on grass silage for winter feeding as they may have access to alternative forages such as beet or maize.
- On a finishing diet, depending on breed and sex, an animal will consume 2%-2.5% of their body weight in dry matter. During this period, total intake may be split 50% forage and 50% concentrate. A bullock of 600kg will eat 12kg-15kg dry matter, which equates to approximately 25kg-35kg fresh silage daily.
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