Silage 2022

Just no window to cut coming here, have over half made but waiting to cut the last of it, i've no time for wet silage, whatever quality i'll lose by leaving it i can live with, it'll still be fine as a maintenance feed for sucklers.

I never noticed such a difference between wet and dry silage. Dry stuff can go mouldy and cause listeria. Not saying you're wrong though. I have wet pit silage this year and I'll see how it goes. Was more pissed off with it last year because it was overgrown and over dry I thought. There wasn't a drop of effluent out of it. Plenty effluent this year. 🤦 Am going to test the pit this year for the first time.

Looks like the Met staff got the message. At least they are admitting that the second half of this coming week is too dodgy to call.

Mowed ours yesterday. Was grazed for a month by milkers and fertiliser/slurry out end of April and may bank holiday weekend. Looks good stuff.

Mowed down Friday evening with the hope yesterday was to be good.light rain on an off.rowed up now to be baled today. Met Eilean out by a mile had no rain forecast an light rain overnight aswell😡

I have to agree with you here.

I've seen sapping wet silage devoured by well fed cows.

I'm starting to think some here are eating the silage themselves

Everyone here wants perfection for their silage, it just goes with trying to do the best for your stock. If we can get to 80-90% off the way we are doing well, you never will get perfection, but striving for it is the key. The biggest factor for most is not cutting silage early enough. This year it was cut at the end of may, cut in the morning and picked up that afternoon. A heap of effluent out of it, but the positive is that it is out of it and quality is there. If I had my own way of doing silage I would be striving for better, but thats the drawback of using a contractor. They are under enough pressure from every angle, farmers, staff, bills and the weather.

Will I go at my own silage, God no, the sums don't add up and never will here

If you have effluent coming off the bales then the quality is not going to be good. That effluent is the nutrients, protein and sugars. The stuff was too fresh and wet by the sounds of it. Cutting and baling the one day is really only doable in hot dry weather and even then it would still need 10-12 hours wilt for perfection

Ah that makes sense, it'll be A1 in a pit

Seen bales yesterday for neighbour with effluent coming out of them... Surprised as was cut dry and baled on super sunny following day.... Bales stacked 3 high so bottom bales massively sagging with all weight on them.

Yeah I'm curious about that.

Mowing and ensiling immediately (regardless of moisture content) is the best preservation of nutrients I would have thought

I certainly agree with you here

Its all reliant on an uncontrollable variable (weather), and lads are either loosing their lives or waving their mickeys around about the great silage they have.

In the grand scheme of things do your best, but if the weather beats you and you end up baling silage that's wringing wet every bit of it will be eaten if its ensiled properly.

Local man here made silage years ago with the rain running out of the trailers. He won the prize in the co op that year for the best silage. Anything is better than over grown or over dry mouldy stuff.

. wrong form, apologies

Research a few years ago showed that cattle on silage alone do better on high DM silage compared to low DM silage. During the winter silage is consumed at 4-10C. Low DM silage will have a lower temp right throughout the bale( water is a conductor) as opposed to high DM silage( the higher the DM the greater the insulating effect).

An animal eating low DM silage @ 20% DM compared to eating it a 40% must consume twice as much fodder to achieve the same intake. So a 600 kg animal consuming 12kgs of DM per day will need 30kgs of the high DM as opposed to 60kgs low DM. All this consumes energy.

An animal stomach operates at about 40% DM so in the low DM case 18L of water needs to be bought to body temp to be disposed of. However on top of that even with low DM silage an animal will drink a certain amount of clean water to clean out there system which again has to leave at body temp

Sometimes this issue is hidden by animals consuming high DM rations which can be 15-20% of there feed intake. But you are still burning energy

Most research by Teagasc is all about DMD no research has been done on DM except for a small project on rations and high DM silage.

This also translates into some of the research into grazing heights in dairying where rations and fiber products are fed. It also is the reason that a diet feeder can be seen to improve feed conversion as each animal gets the exact same at often at or near the right DM all the time.

Dry silage dose not equate to mouldy silage. However it is much easier to preserve pit silage at lower DM than high DM. Bale silage overcomes that issue. It's interesting that in warmer countries hay is considered an excellent product. This is because it can be saved when grass is at or before flowering stage as opposed to waiting for weather which leads to hay made in Ireland being a completely different product to the high DM and DMD product made in these warmer climates. These climates also allow the preservation of leavier products like Alfalfa.

Finally there is the animal effect. This is really noticeable in cows. There stomach shrinks as a calf gets bigger especially in the 3-5 weeks of gestation. Low DM product can lead them to not being able to consume enough DM to maintain themselves.

In Ireland the obession about high DMD silage has being pushed by Teagasc without complete research. It's accepted gospel. No cost benefit analysis was completed either. It's similar to there grazing height research where they transferred this straight to beef and calf rearing and only practical application by drystock farmers have changed some of that thinking.

Finally on rain on silage. Yes rain will wash nutrients out of grass. Effluent is full of nutrients and feed value. Cutting grass dry and wilting it without rain will maintain the energy and nutrients within the product. As grass gets to the hay/haylage stages the sugars in the grass are carbonated. Where large amounts of ration are fed this can tend to scour animals. However where only silage is fed it's is not an issue.

The way you know an animal is thriving is look at there dung. Either too dry or too loose then thrive is impacted. If you even finish cattle you want that to be a kind of dryish creamy consistency.

So personally in my beef system which is a summer based finishing system I aim to graze silage fields in the spring. Close in late March early April. I fertlize for a cutting date of the 25th May but will not cut in wet weather and will accept reduction in DMD to achieve a high DM product as it's cheaper to make. I will not begin to worry until the 1st June at which stage I will take whatever weather window I get. As well first cut in my scenario is generally a much superior product to second cut therefore I want to maximize it. My second cut can vary more because my land can suffer from drought and I may struggle to get June growth, this year is different.

On the legendary tedding. It's only necessary where you are carrying out a smash and grab. If grass is but dry ideally in evening time when sugars are at there highest, left for 48 hours at least depending on weather and raked 8 hours before baling tedding has little impact it's just another cost