There seems to be sufficient silage available on most farms but good silage is running out fast. Most farmers keep a stock of good-quality bales for late March and April to be fed to milking cows in a grass deficit or in bad weather.
With most herds housed for varying periods over the last week, a lot of these bales have been used up. Make sure that you only feed what good silage you have to milking cows.
At this stage, most of the dry cows should be in reasonably good body condition score having had a long dry period so they don’t require good silage.
ADVERTISEMENT
If feeding silage to milking cows, it is worth knowing how much is in the bale or the grab. This helps when allocating grass. Weigh a few bales or grabs and either estimate the dry matter or get it analysed. Normal silage is usually around 20% dry matter. At this stage, average dry matter intake in a typical spring-calving herd should be around 12 or 13kg of total intake. Deduct how much meal and silage is being fed to work out how much grass to allocate.
This content is available to digital subscribers and loyalty code users only. Sign in to your account, use the code or subscribe to get unlimited access.
The reader loyalty code gives you full access to the site from when you enter it until the following Wednesday at 9pm. Find your unique code on the back page of Irish Country Living every week.
CODE ACCEPTED
You have full access to the site until next Wednesday at 9pm.
CODE NOT VALID
Please try again or contact support.
There seems to be sufficient silage available on most farms but good silage is running out fast. Most farmers keep a stock of good-quality bales for late March and April to be fed to milking cows in a grass deficit or in bad weather.
With most herds housed for varying periods over the last week, a lot of these bales have been used up. Make sure that you only feed what good silage you have to milking cows.
At this stage, most of the dry cows should be in reasonably good body condition score having had a long dry period so they don’t require good silage.
If feeding silage to milking cows, it is worth knowing how much is in the bale or the grab. This helps when allocating grass. Weigh a few bales or grabs and either estimate the dry matter or get it analysed. Normal silage is usually around 20% dry matter. At this stage, average dry matter intake in a typical spring-calving herd should be around 12 or 13kg of total intake. Deduct how much meal and silage is being fed to work out how much grass to allocate.
If you would like to speak to a member of our team, please call us on 01-4199525.
Link sent to your email address
We have sent an email to your address. Please click on the link in this email to reset your password. If you can't find it in your inbox, please check your spam folder. If you can't find the email, please call us on 01-4199525.
ENTER YOUR LOYALTY CODE:
The reader loyalty code gives you full access to the site from when you enter it until the following Wednesday at 9pm. Find your unique code on the back page of Irish Country Living every week.
SHARING OPTIONS