Tips if youve got too much silage to use…
Tips if youve got too much silage to use…
IT may seem a little early for beef producers to be considering how much silage they intend to make next year, but with many clamps now full to the brim there may be an opportunity to replace some of next years silage area with an arable crop.
"With large quantities of silage about this year the temptation will be to feed as much as possible. But with silages of poorer quality this could cause a rapid fall in beef cattle liveweight gains," says SAC beef specialist Basil Lowman.
Feed the same levels of silage as usual and check that you are achieving target levels of performance, he advises. "There are three problems with low quality silage. Each kg contains more water and less dry matter, its feed value is lower, and animals eat less of it.
"When proteins are low, supplement with protein sources such as soya and rapemeal and avoid urea. But it is quite common to overdo protein supplementation which has little effect on growth rates and can cause animals, especially heifers to finish too light," he warns.
Care is also needed when feeding silage to suckler cows, says Dr Lowman. "Only feed up to 75% of dry matter intake as silage. Feeding too much silage can lead to cows becoming too fat, particularly spring calvers.
"There are also cases where overfeeding reasonable quality, leafy silage causes deformities in calves. Offering some of the ration as straw or hay helps to overcome these problems."
So if there are limits on how much silage you can force into cattle this winter, what will you do with the remainder? "Save it for next year and, where possible, consider ploughing up grassland designated for silage and planting roots or an arable crop in its place," says Dr Lowman.
Dont sacrifice liveweight gains by relying on poor quality silage.