At a Galway farm walk on Wednesday, Arrabawn silage sample results were revealed showing the average dry matter digestibility (DMD) was 66%. This result was for over 300 samples tested in the last few months. The range, as expected, was wide with some samples as low as 55% and some over 75% DMD.
At a Galway farm walk on Wednesday, Arrabawn silage sample results were revealed showing the average dry matter digestibility (DMD) was 66%.
This result was for over 300 samples tested in the last few months. The range, as expected, was wide with some samples as low as 55% and some over 75% DMD.
Farmers producing milk indoors need to be feeding silage over 73 DMD to maintain milk quality and cow condition score.
Yes, some farmers are still feeding high-quality, round-baled silage, and this can be very good quality, but, some of the farmers yesterday were coming to the end of this feed source and the pit was open.
In terms of crude protein, the average was 12.1% and ME 9.5 MJ/kg DM. Interestingly, a portion of the samples (68) were tested for mineral and trace element content and on average phosphorus, magnesium, calcium and sulphur were below recommended levels.
Copper, zinc, selenium and iodine were also all below recommended levels. Get feeding your dry cow minerals and balance your requirement depending on what your forage is short.
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