Silage quality

iano93

Hi all, have two types of silage at home! One was baled mid august and it rained de day it was baled! The other was baled in late june and and was cut, baled and tedded dry! Both were shaken out but the 1 baled in august never really got a chance to dry, where the other 1 was very dry! Ther is a huge difference, firstly der was there was way more bales per acre of the wet type! De dry ones is the nearest ting to hay and the cows definitly prefer it!:D:) In De wet ones der is much less quantity!:( Just wondering could the dry ones be too dry? If they got much drier they wud b hay!! How would they fair as regards DMC?

Red_Marauder

Yeah there's going to be pretty poor feeding value in your wilted crop, but it all depends on what youre using it for? Could be alright for sucklers but obviously nothing more demanding without considerable supplementation.

We had similiar problems at home with wet crop early last Summer, we had to cut and pick up when we would have preferred not to because it was that or wait until too much heading out had occured which I suspect is what happened to you as well.

Last year was pretty much a disaster for everyone. I don't understand however why molasses wasn't used more, given the season we had, it has its drawbacks and it's messy but anything that can increase your silage quality is pretty much worth a shot these days.

iano93

Red_Marauder wrote: »

Yeah there's going to be pretty poor feeding value in your wilted crop, but it all depends on what youre using it for? Could be alright for sucklers but obviously nothing more demanding without considerable supplementation.

We had similiar problems at home with wet crop early last Summer, we had to cut and pick up when we would have preferred not to because it was that or wait until too much heading out had occured which I suspect is what happened to you as well.

Last year was pretty much a disaster for everyone. I don't understand however why molasses wasn't used more, given the season we had, it has its drawbacks and it's messy but anything that can increase your silage quality is pretty much worth a shot these days.

You say that the feeding value of the dry wilted crop will be poor? Ya its being used for feeding sucklers and for their calves(this years) who luv it:)! I'm giving the springing cows pre calver , If you say it has worse feeding value than the wet stuff should i be giving the cows with calves at foot some sort of supplement? Its very strange that u reckon de feeding quality is worse in de dry ones because theres only one winner with de cows!;)

Red_Marauder

Sorry i don't mean the feeding value is lower because of the wilting in itself, but because of the fact that like a lot of us you couldn't get a wilted crop until the end of June, unfortunately it's probably quite stemmy. If you see a lot of seed heads in silage from that date you probably have a DMD of about 60%

Cows will find this very palatable, but the decreased feeding value is there.

However, as you just pointed out youre using it for sucklers, so no there's no reason why you should have a problem for now, but you'd definitely need to supplement weanlings and postpartum cows.

haybob

I have a lot of long seedy stuff too, the cows are mad for it and I had to leave the second cut till a bit late and it's not so bad.

But I'm confused here is it autumn calves, early calves or weanlings you have I have been advised to watch milk production on the cows when they calf and my neighbour a dairy man is going to provide me with a dairy supplement if necessary.

As for weanling and two year olds I’m feeding em second cut mixed with hay and two buckets of molasses as well as nuts for the two year olds.

To red marauder is it after the horse you are named I had a tenner on him while everyone was laughing at me

Red_Marauder wrote: »

Sorry i don't mean the feeding value is lower because of the wilting in itself, but because of the fact that like a lot of us you couldn't get a wilted crop until the end of June, unfortunately it's probably quite stemmy. If you see a lot of seed heads in silage from that date you probably have a DMD of about 60%

Cows will find this very palatable, but the decreased feeding value is there.

However, as you just pointed out youre using it for sucklers, so no there's no reason why you should have a problem, but you'd definitely need to supplement weanlings

Red_Marauder

haybob wrote: »

To red marauder is it after the horse you are named I had a tenner on him while everyone was laughing at me

Yeah... and if you told me you had ten euro on him back in 2001 i probably would have laughed as well:pac:

Yeah last few years with poorer quality silage due to the weather, our lactating cows are on about 2kg meal until back in calf, if your silage is particularly poor in feeding quality it might ideally need to be slightly higher than that and for a longer period.

haybob

Red_Marauder wrote: »

Yeah... and if you told me you had ten euro on him back in 2001 i probably would have laughed as well:pac:

Yeah last few years with poorer quality silage due to the weather, our lactating cows are on about 2kg meal until back in calf, if your silage is particularly poor in feeding quality it might ideally need to be slightly higher than that and for a longer period.

I know less than noting about horses but the experts were fair sick that day

What might need to be slightly higher the molasses?? Good or bad it's a bale of and a bale of silage in the feeder with two buckets of molasses I'm mad for hardship

Red_Marauder

haybob wrote: »

What might need to be slightly higher the molasses?? Good or bad it's a bale of and a bale of silage in the feeder with two buckets of molasses I'm mad for hardship

No sorry I meant iano93 and the case at home with our own farm of feeding meal to sucklers in early milk production when the silage quality is poor... and yeah in your case that process sounds like fun alright, still at least it's a good way of upping the energy intake and palatability for them. I don't think grass growth can come quickly enough this year.

edit:
just to add, silage protein levels (crude protein) have been reported as being down significantly in last Summer's silage crops and could have implications for ovulation and conception rates for beef and dairy.

Because a low Protein % lowers the ability to digest energy, the poor feeding values of many silages will be lower than most of us may even be taking account for. This will be likely to effect the energy available for ovulation and to avoid early embryo death so correct supplementary feeding will be as important as ever.

iano93

Red Marauder: ''Sorry i don't mean the feeding value is lower because of the wilting in itself, but because of the fact that like a lot of us you couldn't get a wilted crop until the end of June, unfortunately it's probably quite stemmy. If you see a lot of seed heads in silage from that date you probably have a DMD of about 60%

Cows will find this very palatable, but the decreased feeding value is there.

However, as you just pointed out youre using it for sucklers, so no there's no reason why you should have a problem for now, but you'd definitely need to supplement weanlings and postpartum cows. ''Thanks!:D Ya well that was the problem this year again because of the amount of rainfall throughout de summer. Bk to de quality of our silage!:) But if you had 2 types of bales both baled within a few days of each other but one was very dry and the other wet! hich one wud you chose besides the fact you'd be paying the contractor more for the wet bales.

Red_Marauder

There's no doubt the wilted silage is much better choice, not least because as you mention yourself the cost of it. Wet silage is always going to mean more bales, more film wrap, storage issues and lesser quality... so more cost for less benefit.

Yes, stemmy grass is not ideal but I think youre lucky that you managed to get a good wilted crop in June, and as you say the sucklers prefer it so happy days and as long as it just keeps them ticking over that's all you want!