Silage 2022

Just with regard to delaying cuts for bulk and using less fert, April and May will give the best response to the fert so as well to put it out for then and get the silage made right instead of waiting for the field for 2 weeks to get going again after its cut if you leave it longer for bulk. Costs are going to be daft this year, just make sure you'll have enough feed for whatever stock you plan on keeping next winter.

What are ye thinking regarding slurry, the short term forecast is good, dry weather this week anyway. Better utilisation if left on till Feb, but this good weather is bound to break & might not get the opportunity, hard one to call..

Spreading away here since Saturday. Ground holding up well

How do you manage all the grass in the spring/early summer? Especially with calves you’d have a low demand for grass early on in the year?

Don't fork it in, stand with your back to the cattle at the barrier and scrape/ roll it back to the cattle with the fork. Way easier on the back

I am sure the Teagasc brigade will be on shortly to say that could not be possible .I have been making hayledge now 15 years and like yourself more then happy with it .Dung is dryer so cubicle house dung hard to shift down in passage way ends .Contractors don't like hayledge either as it cuts bale numbers

Are you feeding minerals. Depending on when weighted, cattle can lose a lot of weight first at or after housing as they get rid of a lot of liquid in the system. However even if this was 5-8% of bodyweight you are still looking at gain of 0.7/0.8kgs/day.

Nothing but the hayledge and water. I'm surprised myself as when you pull the Weanlen from the Cow and house them they can go backwards. They are inside over 60 days now. my target weights would always be 350kg+ by mid February and I'd usually have to horse meal into them for a few weeks to get them that far, but they are already starting to hit the weight so no meal = more profit.

I have become a bit skeptical too about the quality of some of the rations for Weanlens, the cheaper ones stink of spent brewers grain with very little of the lupen bean, Soya or Barley in them.

350kg is my target which I'm going to get easily, idk could you continue to killing weight on Hayledge, there doesn't seem to be much info out there, it's all on Silage and meal diets or Grass + meal diets

No you couldn't finish on haylage. Weanling thrive on any sort of dry feed. As they eat and sit down. Next year feed minerals, calcium and salt and see how you get on.

Its stores I have but it would be the same. A general purpose beef mineral. Bought it in 25 kg bags 14.5/ bag, I bought 10 bags. 20 grams/100 kgs. I usually feed a bit less than that.

I know only too well. With the softness of the bales when wet they sag and sink making them impossible to pick up unless using a spike. Getting the netting off is a disaster with the bale collapsing down on itself before you get to remove all the netting. Netting guaranteed to end up in the slurry then around the agitator after, another pure balls. The stink of the stuff then as well, everything you touch gets the smell and while you become immune to it, the other half or anyone else hasn't lost their sense of smell and you'll put them out of the room!!

Quality of wet silage goes downhill the wetter it is. When you see black stuff seeping out the bales that's the nutrients making there way out. What's left can be pure yellow sour silage.

Having said all that, it's all weather permitting and it's easy to get caught with Irish Weather.

Even with tedding you would want 40 hours. I just watch the weather. I am not really looking for haylage, just feed above 40% DM.

I agree. But there is a certain amount of brainwashing going on about DMD. 10+ years ago Teagasc had a bulk V feed value graph that indicated late May as the optimal time to make silage. Over the last ten year that graph was thrown aside and cost was added into the system. Silage had to get earlier and earlier. 70DMD was no longer acceptable. You had.to be making 80DMD silage and growing all ryegrass, reseeding every 8-10years, spreading 20 units ager every grazing,

It was the same with breeding AI was the only way whether beef or dairy. There was no emphasis on whether it was practical for a lad working to do it. Therefore you ended up with two extremes, those that followed the gospel and those that didn't.

Those that didn't went further and further down the path of ignoring completely Teagasc advice. There is s happy medium. It's the sweet spot where lads that are finishing or autumn selling weanlings or stores on a grass based system should be.

We are not paid for the extra beef that these technically efficient system produce. There is no point in adding extra work or cost I to the system

If you covered the field in dung last October then all you need for Silage is Nitrogen. Unless you are on really poor ground I can't see how you would need P & K with dung spread

Bought a half Pallet of Silage wrap this morning last years stock, 20 rolls @ €82.50 per roll paid upfront and collected. The new wrap is going to be €100+ that's if you can believe the sales rep. Maybe he was only blowing smoke, the same lad comes out with some mad stuff