The best dairy farmers have 60% to 70% of the grazing platform grazed at this stage and now the plan is to extend the last 30% of available grass for as long as they can. Some have introduced feeding round bale silage this week to help stretch what grass is left. Use your best round bales but also plan to have some of your best quality round bales for next spring rather than feed pit silage to milking cows.

After a good grass-growing year, many have more silage and better-quality silage in stock for winter 2015. Remember, you have already paid for this feed in the form of land rent, fertiliser, harvesting costs etc, so make the most of it.

So far, the early results from some of the national testing laboratories suggest 2015 silage is better quality than 2014. However, results from analyses each year normally start out better and quality gets worse as more testing is completed. Secondly, the quality of silage on your farm is what you want to know – the average being up might mean nothing to you if your grass is poor quality or is not preserved well.

Technical representative from Dairygold Co-op Liam Stack suggests the Dairygold forage testing results completed to date show dry matters at around 27% and a DMD of 70 units. Crude Protein is averaging 11.7 and pH is at around 4.2, so overall quality is good.

Growing animals (weanlings) need good quality silage and 1kg to 2kg of meal per head per day to achieve 0.5kg of daily liveweight gain indoors. Good-quality silage on its own is good enough for dry cows that have a seven- or eight-week dry period if they are in good condition score ( BCS 3) at drying off. Thin cows need an extended dry period or else 2kg of meal feeding per cow per day and the best quality silage for four weeks once they have dried up. Extra feeding any closer to calving will make the unborn calf bigger rather than the cow fatter.

1. If you are going to test your forage, the most accurate way to do so is to probably wait until the pit is open and take samples from along the front of the pit high up and low down. You can also take silage samples with a core but again you need to take a number of samples and mix them up before sending them to the lab for testing.

Watch a demonstration for testing your forage in the video below:

2. Barley and maize meal are probably the most competitively priced energy feeds given the current trading price of rolled barley at €185/t. Maize meal is trading around €200/t. Soyabean meal is the best-quality protein and represents good value for money this winter if trading at €380/t.

3. Relative to barley, soya hulls should cost around €185/t, so at €165/t they are good value and many farmers are feeding hulls now to extend what grass is available.

4. At this time of the year there is less daylight and more work is focused in the yard with heavy machinery. You should be careful when feeding and operating feeding machines. Do a safety audit now and light up the yard properly to help visibility and safety.