Fodder

Every day not at grass takes another chunk out of the silage pit and adds more slurry to the near-full tanks. These are the obvious implications of the bad weather, but there are knock-on impacts too in terms of milk yield and cow body condition score.

With no real let up in the forecast (another 20mm to 40mm forecast for this week) the problem shows no sign of abating.

I don’t mean to be all negative, but farmers, particularly those on heavy land, should be preparing for a potentially difficult period in April. Work out how much silage is in the yard and how much is being eaten per day.

This will tell you how long you have left before silage runs out. If likely to be a problem, then firstly look at reducing demand. There is good money available for cattle and cull cows at the moment, so they could be sold to reduce demand.

The best quality silage should be reserved for milking cows. Straights such as soya hulls or palm kernel can be fed to stretch silage stocks, but cows need lots of feed face so they can all eat at the one time if feeding straights.

Costs

If meal can be bought for say €300/t for a basic three way mix or a fodder-stretcher that equates to €330/t on a dry matter basis or 33c/kg DM.

If round bale silage is costing €40/bale, and presuming there is 200kg DM in a bale, then the silage is costing 20c/kg DM. The weight and dry matter of the silage is variable, so keep this in mind when comparing prices.

If silage is available to purchase it’ll probably work out cheaper than meal on a cost per kilo dry matter basis, but on a cost per kilo of energy basis the meal could be better value if the silage quality is poor.

However, if meal is being fed it can only be used as a supplement to silage and not instead of silage. The very most that can be fed to stretch silage is probably up to 50% of the diet on a dry matter basis, so up to 8kg or 9kg in extreme cases.

Fodder stretcher rations should contain high fibre feeds such as pulps and hulls, and should be fed instead of high starch feeds like cereals.

Fertiliser

Most farmers have little or no fertiliser spread to date, and given current soil conditions it’s probably not a bad thing. However, the current weather won’t last forever and when the situation does improve, farmers will need to act quickly.

As many farmers are eating into or have finished their silage reserve, the challenge will be to replace that buffer and produce 10% or 20% more silage.

This will require fields to be well fertilised with 80 to 100 units N/acre, 20 units P/acre and 90 units of K/acre.

Almost all of the P and K requirements can be provided in slurry, but given there will be high covers on many silage fields because they won’t have been grazed, it may be a case of spreading slurry after silage is cut to replace the offtakes.

This means only nitrogen will be spread at closing. This is OK on soils at index three and four, but where soil fertility is low, the P and K will be needed to feed the crop.