For many suckler farms around the country, January marks the midway point of the winter housing period.

As such, now is a good time to work out how much forage is still on farm. If silage is likely to run short, then the earlier you know this, the better.

There is plenty of fodder for sale around the country, but feed quality may be variable. Where farmers plan on buying in additional silage, it may be more practical to buy bales now, especially if they are of lower quality than silage made on farm.

Farmers can save the better-quality silage for feeding to cows post-calving, when energy demand increases during early lactation

This way, you can target bought-in silage to dry cows that will not calve down until March or April.

By feeding these bales now, farmers can save the better-quality silage for feeding to cows post-calving, when energy demand increases during early lactation.

The opposite applies where bought-in silage is better than fodder made on farm. Also, you can mix the bought-in silage with homegrown silage, helping to stretch supplies over the spring period.

When buying fodder, make sure you are purchasing something of reasonable quality or better.

There is little point in buying mouldy silage with a sour smell, as cattle intakes will be poor, meaning it will be money wasted.

Calculating out forage intakes

To work out a proper fodder budget for your herd, visit our online fodder calculator here.

Other options include working out how many bales are used weekly, then count how many bales are in stock.

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