Getting the best from your grass silage
Sponsored editorial from Yara
| Silage production follows similar rules to grazing, although consideration needs to be given to achieving the desired quality parameters. It has now become a key component of feed, accounting for some 80% of the total winter forage fed to ruminant livestock. Before embarking on your grass management, take care in planning your requirements so that you can clearly identify yield targets that will meet these needs. Another consideration is the desired D-value; this would normally be 67 to 70. Dates at which a grass reaches this value will depend on the variety, thus knowing your sward mixture is important. Cutting a grass before its due date will improve the D-value, but compromise yield and possibly increase free nitrogen content leading to ammonia production in the clamp. Conversely, delaying cutting will improve yield whilst lowering D-values. Cutting is likely to be in the second or third week of May, thus for maximising nitrogen use we have to take into account having 50–60 days of growth. By using ‘The Grassland Rule’ (apply nitrogen at 2 units N/acre/day of expected grass growth), we can build a recommendation to optimise grass production. In multi-cut regimes, or where grazing follows a cut, then another key area is timeliness of fertilizer application. The rate of re-growth is strongly dependent on fertilizer application – an eight-day delay can lead to a 6% yield loss. Finally when looking to produce quality forage, do not undermine this by using a poor quality fertilizer that carries no guarantees. |