RWN News Digest

Opportunities to Increase Milk Yield 
from Forage

The importance of continued re-investment in your business can never be over emphasized. Any business must continually move forward in order to maintain profitability as competitors  increase their output and efficiency. 

To do nothing is to fall behind. The purpose of this release is to convey what I consider to be a real opportunity to increase both the output and efficiency for the dairy farmer.

We are seeing spectacular results from reseeds with RWN Grass Seeds Mixtures based on IGER Aber High Sugar Grasses, Aber Hybrid Ryegrass and Aber White Clover.

This season with an abundance of forage on most dairy farms, we have an ideal opportunity to take additional land out of production for a late summer reseed.

Grass and grass silage account for more than half the diet on most dairy farms. In order for cows genetic potential to be realized, it is essential that grass which is grown has the highest possible nutritive value in terms of D-value and intake characteristics. 

Growing top quality forage has enormous potential to lift milk yield, to reduce purchased concentrate usage and to increase profitability. This can only be achieved by reseeding old worn out grassland with the latest grass seed varieties.

RWN Grass Seed Mixtures are designed specifically for high yielding dairy herds. We formulate to the highest possible D-value and sugar levels, as well as for yield, disease resistance and persistency.

Outstanding New Grass and Clover Varieties.

Tremendous advances have been made in the quality of grass seed and clover seed available with IGER who have introduced through British Seed Houses, a whole range of advanced new grass seed varieties with greatly improved nutritional qualities. 

This has come about as the culmination of 20 years of research work to produce grass and clover varieties specifically for UK conditions, with improved nutritive value as well as greater yield, disease resistance and persistency.

These achievements have been recognized by NIAB, with the NIAB Variety Cup 2003 having been awarded to the new High Sugar Grass variety AberDart. This is the first time ever that this award has been presented to a forage species. 

AberDart High Sugar Grass has demonstrated up to 2.5 litres more milk and 20% increase in liveweight gain when compared with conventional grass seed varieties. IGER have now introduced a number of High Sugar Grass varieties with several more in the pipeline. These new varieties are way out in front of other varieties currently used in the UK and represent a major advance in UK livestock nutrition.

• Aber High Sugar Grasses (HSG)

  • High Sugar Grasses have up to 50 % higher sugars than standard grass varieties

  • Milk yield benefits of up to 2.5 litres / cow / day

  • Dry matter intake increased by 2kg / head /day

  • Diet digestibility increased by 3%

  • 20% increase in daily liveweight gain in youngstock

  • More sugars retained in inoculated, High Sugar Grass silage

  • Rapid regrowth after cutting or grazing High Sugar Grass

  • Very high forage dry matter yields / ha

  • Extremely good persistence with good resistance to disease and winter kill

• Aber Hybrid Ryegrass

  • Aber Hybrid ryegrass has the same yield of Italian ryegrass with the quality of  perennial ryegrass

  • Aber Hybrid ryegrass varieties are 10% higher yielding than perennial ryegrass

  • Aber Hybrid ryegrass produced 33% greater yield than existing leys on MDC 'Practice into Profit' farms

  • Ideal for 5 year leys, for cutting and rotational grazing

• Aber White Clover Blends

  • Aber white clover varieties have longer growing season and greater persistency than conventional clover

  • They produce higher yields and much greater clover content

  • Overall yield of up to 13.5% more per ha than grass only swards, even with heavier nitrogen applications

  • Aber white clover has shown increases in milk yield of up to 3.5 litres / cow / day 

  • White clover mixtures allow greatly reduced nitrogen application

  • Aber clover mixtures withstand shading by heavy crops making them more versatile

  • Heavy invasive stolons quickly fill gaps in the sward and are beneficial to soil structure

Major opportunities to increase profitability

Milk output is the major factor in determining the profitability of most dairy farms. Many UK dairy farms are achieving well over 9000 litres / cow. Large increases in both milk yield and milk quality resulting from well-managed reseeds as compared with old pasture can have a dramatic effect on profitability.

I urge all dairy farmers to walk their grassland regularly. Ask yourselves, have I scope to lift milk yield from forage in order to boost milk yields, either by tightening my grassland management or by reseeding to improve the quality as well as the quantity of the forage that I grow?

For more information or for an in depth consultation contact Richard Webster.

Working together for a more profitable future

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