RWN News Digest
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By 20th May the D-Value of most grass silage crops is already past it's best and falling. This is made worse by the risk of crops going down. In the case of lodged crops we can expect a decline of 1.5 units per day as the bottom of the wet crop deteriorates. Too often farmers wait for the weather and cut heavy, wet, low quality crops in mid-June, still in poor weather conditions. The result in many cases can be a 30% increase in winter feed bills as very mature silages fail to perform. We know that a 20% dry matter, 11 ME silage cut soon, will perform far better than a 9.5 ME, mature, low protein silage cut later at any dry matter. Once the crop reaches optimum D-Value cut as soon as the ground is travelable. Use a good quality biological inoculant additive. The additive used should ideally be a freeze
dried multi-strain bacterial inoculant / enzyme combination which
applies at least 1 million bacteria / gram of grass. Do not be tempted
to wait until the weather is perfect, the crop is deteriorating.
Cutting at the first opportunity will reduce pressure on grazing next
month and allows a bigger, better quality 2nd cut. Do use an additive. With cash flows tight, many farmers have resisted spending additional money on an additive, effectively ignoring all the research of the past 15 years. The case for using a modern inoculant enzyme biological additive is proven beyond all shadow of doubt. Irrespective of weather conditions an additive will give a milk yield response of around 1.3 litres of milk together with improvements in milk quality, body condition and fertility, as well as 4% - 5% more silage in the pit and a reduction in effluent. The result at current milk prices is at least a 5:1 return on investment. The cost of not spending £1000 on a forage additive now, equates to around £4000 lost profit. |
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We recommend using a well proven, high spec inoculant enzyme combination product such as SilAll 4x4 or Gold Shake 50 containing 1 million cfu's per 1g of grass and at least 4 strains of broad spectrum bacteria in conjunction with at least 3 enzymes. It is particularly important that the strains of bacteria used in the inoculant are capable of utilizing a broad spectrum of sugars and exhibit a rapid fermentation throughout a wide range of pH, temperature and forage dry matter conditions. This will ensure that the fermentation losses are minimal and that the silage conserved is as close as possible in feed value to the original forage crop at the time of harvest. Good silage making practice requires attention to detail especially when having invested in a silage additive. Especially important are good hygiene, rapid filling, good consolidation, sheeting and face management. High quality inoculant treated silage has more feed value and is worth more than untreated silage. Pay attention to detail. Remember that the fermentation cannot begin until the air is out of the clamp. Good consolidation by effective rolling of no more than 6 inch layers of forage during the clamping process is essential if mould and yeast activity and poor stability is to be avoided. With high dry matter forage, if adequate consolidation cannot be ensured a specialist product such as SilAll Fireguard or Ice-Gold which contain food grade chemical preservatives in addition to inoculant bacteria and enzymes, should be used. Silage probably accounts for half of the diet of your dairy herd. Quality is important and well worth the investment. Use an additive and give it the attention it deserves. |
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Working together for a more profitable future |
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