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Now is a good time to do a feed budget for winter.
Calculate how much silage you have in stock and work out expected yields from second-cut silage (usually around 3t DM/ha).
To measure silage in a pit, get the average height and multiply by the length and breadth in metres. Divide by 1.3 to convert to tonnes and then multiply by the dry matter of the silage to get tonnes dry matter.
A dry cow will eat between 10kg and 12kg of dry matter per day. Youngstock will eat about 2% of their liveweight per day.
Deduct meals fed when budgeting how much silage you need. If you think you will be short, now is the time to take action.
With grain prices low, tillage farmers will be looking for alternative options. Ciarán Lenehan has Farm to farm feed: what are the options?" target="_blank">looked at the options regarding buying corn or wholecrop from tillage farmers.
Out-wintering on fodder crops
I heard of one farmer recently who has done a deal with a tillage farmer to out-winter some of his cows on fodder crops.
The dairy farmer is short of housing and the tillage farmer is getting GLAS payments for planting the fodder crop anyway so it is a win-win.
If you want to stick with silage, there is still time to do a deal for standing crops, but at this stage in the year quality will be poor.
Don’t presume any silage will do dry cows – silage below 65% DMD won’t put on much body condition.
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