Improved silage making key to controlling costs

Apr 14 2008 by Tom Patterson, The Journal

ENGLISH beef and sheep producers can combat escalating purchased feed costs by improving this season’s silage-making, according to experts.

A new national initiative by the British Grassland Society along with the English Beef and Lamb Executive says this need not involve either higher quality silage or increased conservation costs.

The Silage Decisions initiative, based on a handy computer programme with accompanying fact sheets, allows users to examine the consequences of key grassland and conservation management decisions on grass silage yield, quality and overall cost.

Eblex Beef & Sheep Scientist, Dr Liz Genever, said: “Instead of placing the primary emphasis on improving silage quality as has so often been the case with improvement advice in the past, the decision-making initiative focuses attention on making the silage they need at the least possible cost.

“While high quality silage is undoubtedly an important objective, making sufficient silage is likely to be the key requirement for most of those seeking more cost-effective over-wintering of suckler cows or ewes.”

She added: “The best solution for most beef and sheep units will almost certainly be to plan to make different quality silages in different quantities for different groups of stock.”

This approach is most easily achieved with big bale silage.

Dr Genever said: “This has the additional value of giving the greatest flexibility in the conservation system both to cater for changing weather conditions and to achieve the best overall grassland utilisation through close integration with grazing.

“In this context, silage-making should also be seen as an important tool in balancing pasture growth to maintain sward quality.”

Key decisions include:

Re-seeding to increase pasture performance.

Promoting clover content to increase sward quality and reduce costs.

Ensuring the right soil pH and P and K status for optimum yields.

Fertilising with sulphur to improve output at lower levels of fertilisation.

Making better use of slurry and farmyard manure to reduce fertilisation costs.

Controlling docks to boost yields and quality.

Adjusting cutting dates to give the right balance between quality and bulk.

Fine-tuning chop length to improve silage fermentation and rumination.

Using silage additives to improve silage quality.

Wrapping big bales for the best results.

The programme can be accessed free at www.silagedecisions.co.uk