Maize silage replacement cuts costs
Maize silage replacement cuts costs
ONE dairy unit is replacing maize silage in rations with alkaline whole-crop wheat in an effort to reduce labour costs and avoid damage to soil structure caused by wet maize harvests.
Richard Houghton, who manages the Strutt & Parker Lavenham Herd in Suffolk, said whole-crop wheat had made a comeback on his unit after a 10-year absence.
"Harvesting maize was damaging soil structure, particularly with wet autumns. In addition, grass and maize silage were failing to satisfy appetite as the herd increased milk output."
This year, the maize area was being reduced by 24ha (60 acres) with 53ha (130 acres) of wheat and 26ha (65 acres) of peas grown for whole-crop silage.
Using a forage harvester fitted with a mill has meant the crops could be harvested later, avoiding the 30% grain losses when whole-crop was last grown on the unit, said Mr Houghton.
"High dry matter whole-crop wheat costs about £45/t DM to produce, excluding area aid payments, compared with £60/t for grass silage. However, pea yields need to be higher at about 11t/ha instead of the current 7.5t/ha to make it economic."
An additional bonus is the large reduction in labour. Feeding whole-crop has eliminated the need to chop straw, it was a laborious task with more than 200t being chopped each winter, said Mr Houghton.
"Daily forage intakes are now at 14kg dry matter for cows yielding 43kg of milk with whole-crop accounting for 44% of total forage intake. The rolling 305 day average milk yield now stands at 10,200kg with 4% fat and 3.35% protein," he added. *
Feeding whole-crop wheat has eliminated the need to chop more than 200t of straw each winter, said Richard Houghton.