Last year, I was at a meeting where the main topic of discussion was silage quality. At the time, I was of the opinion that I had reasonably good-quality silage, although when I compared mine to others it showed that it was actually only slightly above average.

Our adviser told us (although I think he was directing his comments directly at me) that you must set out to make good silage to have any chance of succeeding.

Well I was quite taken aback at this. Did he think that I was setting out to make bad silage? Did he not realise how difficult the weather conditions can be in Fermanagh? And did he not realise that everyone wants the contractor when the sun is shining.

This played on my mind for days as I kept turning it over in my head.

I started to look in more detail at those farmers who were producing this superior quality material. The weather was definitely in their favour, but I hate always blaming the weather for any shortcomings in the west compared with other parts of NI.

What really shocked me was the performance being achieved by those farmers feeding high-quality grass silage. One farmer was getting better weight gains than me with his young bulls on half the amount of meal that I was feeding.

To put this into money terms (the most important analysis), he was feeding his bulls for £1 a day less than I was. That works into an added cost on this farm of £100 per head during the finishing period and £2,000 on the 20 bulls that I was finishing.

It was the same as another 30p/kg on the price of beef.

That was it, I had counted enough. My adviser was talking a lot of sense even if I didn’t want to believe him. It was time for action.

Determined

I therefore started out this year determined to make some top-quality silage if at all possible.

I made plans early. I got the old grass eaten off and went out with the slurry in February. My fertiliser was also applied early on, even though conditions at the time were not as good as I would have liked.

Grazing ahead

In the meantime, the good weather towards the end of April meant that my grazing platform was getting ahead of the cattle.

I measure grass weekly, and that information confirmed that I had a surplus. I went out on 2 May and cut six paddocks and six more on 8 May. I wilted it for a day and then baled it up.

It only yielded three bales to the acre and I’m very sure that a lot of neighbours probably think that I was foolish. But I believe that I will have a significant saving in feed costs this winter, and I have also improved the sward for future grazing.

First cut

Then on 11 May I decided to cut half of my pit silage. It was exactly six weeks sowed but, with conditions good, that didn’t worry me.

It was mowed after 11 in the morning and all tedded out for a short 24-hour wilt. It was lifted exactly 19 days earlier than last year, which had been the first year that I cut in May.

I know that this has been an exceptional year to date, and there will be years when I will struggle to make early silage. But if you set out with the intention of making better quality material, then, at least, you have a chance of succeeding.

But having some good silage for priority stock this winter is not the end of the story. Of course, it’s no good in having all superior quality silage that runs out in February. I must now ensure that I can gather up enough bulk in the rest of the first-cut silage, and subsequent cuts, to make certain that I don’t run out of silage next winter.

Here in Fermanagh, we need that much silage to get us through a long winter that we sometimes forget about the quality.

But what my recent investigations have taught me is that we should all set out to make better silage, particularly for store and finishing cattle. It may not work every year but there are substantial financial savings to be had.