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With limited silage reserves on farm, farmers need to take early action to address any potential winter feed shortage.
For some farmers, the situation can be resolved simply by buying in silage. For others, the lack of fodder extends across the entire county, meaning it will require a combination of methods to address the winter feed shortage.
Outlined are some possible steps that can help stretch fodder supplies this winter.
1. Budget
First off, work out how much silage you have and how much you need to bring your cattle through the winter.
Access the feed budget calculator on www.farmersjournal.ie/toolbox/fodder to work out how much silage different stock groups will consume.
Alternatively, you could work on the principle that a dry suckler cow will eat approximately 1t/month of silage, with an autumn-calving cow eating closer to 1.4t/month.
A 300kg weanling will eat 0.75t, with 550kg stores eating close to 1t/month. To work out how much silage is in the pit, measure the length x width x height in metres. Then divide by 1.4 to determine how much silage is available.
Do this monthly to make sure you are not going through silage too quickly and re-assess your position.
2. Cull cows
Spring-calving cows should be scanned by now. Cows that are not in-calf should be sold as soon as possible. The live trade is solid and returning a good price on fleshed cows.
If cows are thin, or you are under movement restriction, put cull cows on to meal and straw for 30 days prior to sale. This will improve body condition and sale weight, increasing the value of cow.
Spring cows that are scanned in-calf, but running late in the calving pattern, could possibly be sold if fodder is extremely tight.
This will relate to a small number of cows. Selling in a group will attract more interest from buyers as genuine animals for sale.
3. Sell stores
As with cull cows, selling store cattle will reduce fodder demand. Only sell cattle that are in a good condition, otherwise they will be devalued. Increasing meal levels for a brief period before sale will improve body condition.
4. Wean spring-calving cows
Late spring-born calves should be weaned by this stage. A May-calving cow will be contributing little in the way of milk to drive weight gain in the calf. Wean now and put the cow on to a maintenance diet.
5. Restrict sucking
For autumn-calving cows, restricting the calf to suckling twice daily will reduce silage intakes by as much as 20%.
This could be a saving of 10kg/day for some cows. In a herd of 40 cows, this will save between 10t and 12t of silage per month.
Restricting sucking will also bring cows back into heat again much quicker after calving. Cows will also display stronger heats.
Allow calves to suck the cow for one hour in the morning and again in the evening. Lock calves in the creep area the rest of the time. Calf performance will not be affected by restricting suckling.
6. Restricting silage
Dry cows have a lower maintenance requirement, so silage can be restricted if it is of average to good quality.
Only restrict if you have adequate feeding space for all cows to feed at the same time.
Group thin cows separately from the main herd. Allow these cows ad-lib access to silage until they reach the desired body condition for calving, then reduced silage intake as necessary.
Restrict silage for cows in adequate and excessive body condition. Cows will soon adjust to the reduced feed levels. Do not restrict by any more than 50% of their normal forage intake.
7. Offer straw
Straw is expensive and also limited in availability. But it can still play a role for winter feeding to stretch silage supplies. Straw will slow down digestion, reducing intakes.
Mixing straw with wet, late-season silage will improve intake and reduce waste. Make sure cows are properly covered for minerals and energy if feeding low-quality silage and straw together.
8. Feed more meal
Feeding more meal to autumn-calving cows and store cattle will stretch silage supplies, but only if you restrict fodder on offer. If silage is still offered on an ad-lib basis, they will eat to appetite.
The role of meal is to replace the energy and protein of silage.
Where autumn cows are on 2kg/day, increase to 3kg or 4kg/day depending on silage availability. As a rule of thumb, 1kg of meal can replace 5kg to 7kg of silage, depending on the feed value of the forage.
At €250/t, feeding another 2kg of meal will cost 50c/day. Taking silage at €40/t, reducing silage intake by 12kg/day will cost 48c/day.
In the case of finishing cattle, move on to ad-lib meal and straw for a period prior to slaughter. For steers, feed no more than 80 to 100 days on ad-lib meal, depending on breed type. For heifers, reduce this to 30 to 50 days.
9. Front-load meal
Rather than feeding meal at a flat rate of 2kg/day to weanlings over the winter, front-load the meal so that a bigger percentage is fed in the first half of winter.
Feed 3kg/day for the next 60 days from now until mid-January. Then reduce to 1kg/day from then until mid-March. Over the 120-day period, both methods feed the same amount of meal at 240kg.
If store cattle have to be sold in spring, the higher meal feeding rate will have improved performance, so cattle will be heavier.
10. Buy in silage
Buying additional silage seems straightforward, but what quality of feed are you purchasing. Bales made in the few weeks will have little feed value.
They will be more prone to heating and spoilage. If you are buying such bales, be sure to feed it now to lower-priority stock, as leaving the bales until spring will cause even more spoilage and waste. Use the bales as quickly as possible when opened.
Listen: fodder relief scheme for farmers
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