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Feed space: Most cows need to hold or gain body condition score (BCS) over the dry period. They won’t do this if silage quality is poor or if they are not getting enough. A shortage of feed space is effectively restricting silage.
The rule of thumb was always one foot of feed space per cow when silage is unrestricted, ie ad-lib. If the silage is gone from the barrier in the morning then that is not ad-lib feeding, that is restricted feeding.
Either not enough silage was put in or not enough cows can eat at one time, meaning there is a queue to feed at the barrier and because the silage wasn’t pushed in during the night the cows ate their way through it.
There is a fine line between giving enough silage and giving too much, where the silage goes stale because the cows can’t eat it fast enough. Farmers who feed for two or three days at a time need to be careful not to have increased wastage.
Silage: As we approach the end of the year, it is a good time to check silage stocks. To measure silage in a pit, get the average height and multiply by the length and breadth in metres.
Divide by 1.3 to convert to tonnes and then multiply by the dry matter of the silage to get tonnes dry matter. A dry cow will eat between 10kg and 12kg of dry matter per day. Youngstock will eat about 2% of their liveweight per day. Work out how much silage you have and how much you need between now and expected turnout day.
If silage quality is good, they will eat more of it, not because they are hungry but because it is tasty. Really, silage should be fed according to need, not want. There’s no point in letting fat cows get fatter and end up running out of silage next spring when all cows need silage.
My advice is to do a body condition score on the herd and split them up into three groups. One group will be cows that need to put on BCS between now and calving. The second group will be at the required BCS for calving now, so will only need a maintenance diet. The third group will have too much BCS for calving and should be fed a restricted diet. Calculate how many grabs of silage each group needs per day or per second day.
Christmas: It will be next to impossible to get inputs, parts or repairs carried out next week as most businesses will be closed from Tuesday afternoon.
While you can’t legislate for things breaking down, you can be organised to prevent running out of stuff. The first thing is to ensure you have enough essentials in stock. Meal, minerals and diesel are essential, so if stocks are running low, order them in now.
It’s a good idea to have a supply of parts in stock, such as water fittings, fuses, etc in the event of a breakdown. Have supplies of salt in stock in the event of a cold spell. This can be used for gritting yards and preventing milking machines from freezing. Check all slurry tanks for quantity of slurry and move around slurry to where there is capacity if there is a risk of tanks filling up over Christmas.
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