A fodder budget was carried out on James King’s farm near Ballymena last week. The exercise concluded that there is enough silage on the King farm for the winter period, although the surplus is slightly less than originally thought.
Dairylink: Assessing fodder stocks in Antrim.
With good growing conditions in the early part of the 2019 season, silage crops bulked well and many farmers believe that there is plenty of winter feed available.
However, Dairylink Ireland adviser Aidan Cushnahan recommends that a fodder budget should still be carried out to quantify the supply and demand for silage over the next few months.
This is particularly important for herds that were housed early due to the wet autumn.
A fodder budget is also useful to show how much flexibility you have if something causes the demand for fodder to change, such as a delayed turnout in the spring or a bovine TB breakdown.
For autumn calving herds, the aim should be to target the best-quality silage at early lactation and high yielding cows for as long as possible
If there is a potential shortfall in winter feed, it is important to identify and rectify it early.
This is to allow winter feed plans to be formulated to stretch silage stocks, or with plenty of fodder for sale in most areas, better quality silage can be bought whilst it is available.
Aidan points out that carefully assessing the amount of first cut silage available will also allow well-informed decision making on how fodder is allocated.
“For autumn calving herds, the aim should be to target the best-quality silage at early lactation and high yielding cows for as long as possible, to maximise the return from this forage,” he said.
“All forages should also be analysed for nutrient quality, if they haven’t been done so already, to maximise feed efficiency within a winter feed plan,” he added.
In the first step of the fodder budget, the length, width and height of silage clamps on the King farm were measured in metres (m) and multiplied to give volume in m3.
The slope of unopened pits was estimated by multiplying half the height by the full width and length.
James had 1,469t of fresh weight silage on the farm last week
To convert the volume of silage in m3 into fresh weight in tonnes (t), multiplication factors are used, based on silage dry matters (DM).
Multiply by 0.81 for 18% DM silage, 0.77 for 20%, 0.68 for 25% and multiply by 0.6 for 30% DM silage.
James has baled silage, which was made from surplus grass on the milking platform.
Unchopped round bales were estimated to have a fresh weight of 0.6t and chopped bales were taken as 0.75t.
Adding all this together, James had 1,469t of fresh weight silage on the farm last week.
James has enough silage to last until the end of April at the full winter feed rate.
On the demand side, the calculations are straight-forward, as James runs a flying herd with no replacement stock.
It is based on 170 milking cows with a monthly silage requirement of 1.3t/head over a six-month winter, which equates to 221t/month.
Also, there will be 30 dry cows on average throughout the winter and they will have a monthly requirement of 1.0t/head, which leaves overall silage requirement at 251t/month.
James is confident that most autumn-calving cows that are past peak lactation and scanned in-calf will be out at grass early in the spring
Dividing total supply (1,469t) by monthly demand (251t) shows that James has almost six months of silage, which would last until the end of April at the full winter feed rate.
However, James is confident that most autumn-calving cows that are past peak lactation and scanned in-calf will be out at grass early in the spring.
Ground conditions held up relatively well on the King farm this autumn and James was able to have 44 late lactation cows at grass by day up until last week.
Winter diet
All cows are now housed full time and the milking herd is split in two groups.
The early lactation/high yielding group are on a total mixed ration (TMR) made up of 38kg silage, 6kg blend, 1kg straw nuts and 1kg sugar beet pulp.
First-cut silage is being fed, which analysed at 28% DM, 11.1 MJ/kgDM metabolisable energy, 18% crude protein, 69% D-value and pH of 3.6.
Straw nuts have been added to the TMR to reduce the risk of acidosis, which is associated with feeding silage with a lower pH.
The late-lactation group are being offered ad-lib grass silage
This ration has an estimated DM intake of almost 18kg/cow and the diet is designed to support maintenance plus 25l. Cows producing over 25l are fed to yield in the parlour with a 17% crude protein nut.
The late-lactation group are being offered ad-lib grass silage. Most cows in this group are being topped up with concentrates in the parlour.
James is planning to review the winter feed plan shortly with his nutritionist.
The focus will be mainly on the protein supply in the diet, as the crude protein of first cut silage is higher than previous years (18%).
The diet may require changes to the composition of the concentrates being fed alongside the forage.
Read more
Dairylink: keeping on top of calf rearing in Tyrone
Calf rearing in full swing in Co Down
A fodder budget was carried out on James King’s farm near Ballymena last week. The exercise concluded that there is enough silage on the King farm for the winter period, although the surplus is slightly less than originally thought.
Dairylink: Assessing fodder stocks in Antrim.
With good growing conditions in the early part of the 2019 season, silage crops bulked well and many farmers believe that there is plenty of winter feed available.
However, Dairylink Ireland adviser Aidan Cushnahan recommends that a fodder budget should still be carried out to quantify the supply and demand for silage over the next few months.
This is particularly important for herds that were housed early due to the wet autumn.
A fodder budget is also useful to show how much flexibility you have if something causes the demand for fodder to change, such as a delayed turnout in the spring or a bovine TB breakdown.
For autumn calving herds, the aim should be to target the best-quality silage at early lactation and high yielding cows for as long as possible
If there is a potential shortfall in winter feed, it is important to identify and rectify it early.
This is to allow winter feed plans to be formulated to stretch silage stocks, or with plenty of fodder for sale in most areas, better quality silage can be bought whilst it is available.
Aidan points out that carefully assessing the amount of first cut silage available will also allow well-informed decision making on how fodder is allocated.
“For autumn calving herds, the aim should be to target the best-quality silage at early lactation and high yielding cows for as long as possible, to maximise the return from this forage,” he said.
“All forages should also be analysed for nutrient quality, if they haven’t been done so already, to maximise feed efficiency within a winter feed plan,” he added.
In the first step of the fodder budget, the length, width and height of silage clamps on the King farm were measured in metres (m) and multiplied to give volume in m3.
The slope of unopened pits was estimated by multiplying half the height by the full width and length.
James had 1,469t of fresh weight silage on the farm last week
To convert the volume of silage in m3 into fresh weight in tonnes (t), multiplication factors are used, based on silage dry matters (DM).
Multiply by 0.81 for 18% DM silage, 0.77 for 20%, 0.68 for 25% and multiply by 0.6 for 30% DM silage.
James has baled silage, which was made from surplus grass on the milking platform.
Unchopped round bales were estimated to have a fresh weight of 0.6t and chopped bales were taken as 0.75t.
Adding all this together, James had 1,469t of fresh weight silage on the farm last week.
James has enough silage to last until the end of April at the full winter feed rate.
On the demand side, the calculations are straight-forward, as James runs a flying herd with no replacement stock.
It is based on 170 milking cows with a monthly silage requirement of 1.3t/head over a six-month winter, which equates to 221t/month.
Also, there will be 30 dry cows on average throughout the winter and they will have a monthly requirement of 1.0t/head, which leaves overall silage requirement at 251t/month.
James is confident that most autumn-calving cows that are past peak lactation and scanned in-calf will be out at grass early in the spring
Dividing total supply (1,469t) by monthly demand (251t) shows that James has almost six months of silage, which would last until the end of April at the full winter feed rate.
However, James is confident that most autumn-calving cows that are past peak lactation and scanned in-calf will be out at grass early in the spring.
Ground conditions held up relatively well on the King farm this autumn and James was able to have 44 late lactation cows at grass by day up until last week.
Winter diet
All cows are now housed full time and the milking herd is split in two groups.
The early lactation/high yielding group are on a total mixed ration (TMR) made up of 38kg silage, 6kg blend, 1kg straw nuts and 1kg sugar beet pulp.
First-cut silage is being fed, which analysed at 28% DM, 11.1 MJ/kgDM metabolisable energy, 18% crude protein, 69% D-value and pH of 3.6.
Straw nuts have been added to the TMR to reduce the risk of acidosis, which is associated with feeding silage with a lower pH.
The late-lactation group are being offered ad-lib grass silage
This ration has an estimated DM intake of almost 18kg/cow and the diet is designed to support maintenance plus 25l. Cows producing over 25l are fed to yield in the parlour with a 17% crude protein nut.
The late-lactation group are being offered ad-lib grass silage. Most cows in this group are being topped up with concentrates in the parlour.
James is planning to review the winter feed plan shortly with his nutritionist.
The focus will be mainly on the protein supply in the diet, as the crude protein of first cut silage is higher than previous years (18%).
The diet may require changes to the composition of the concentrates being fed alongside the forage.
Read more
Dairylink: keeping on top of calf rearing in Tyrone
Calf rearing in full swing in Co Down
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