Silage pit management

A lot of silage pits will have been opened over the past two weeks and with such mild conditions being experienced, heating and spoilage can quickly take hold unless the pit face is carefully managed.

Not only is feed spoilage a waste of money in terms of feed value loss, it can also pose a health risk to stock through ingested moulds and potentially mycotoxins.

Allowing air into the pit face can cause heating and feed wastage. This can then travel back the pit throughout the winter and can be hard to get ahead of.

This is especially true in cases where there is very dry silage in the clamp, rolling has been insufficient at the time of filling or where you are not clearing the pit face often enough during winter.

Keeping a neat and tidy pit face is important to minimise wastage. Keep the blades of the shear grab sharp and replace worn or broken tines. Try to move across the pit face at least once a week to limit the opportunity for heating to occur and travel back the pit.

If it is taking too long to clear the pit face and heating is starting to be a problem, either increase the number of animals being fed from the pit or try taking half to three-quarter depth grabs to move across the face more quickly.

Animal Health questions

Pneumonia remains the greatest risk over the coming days and weeks for stock that have been housed recently. This is especially true for young-stock.

Keep a close eye on animals housed in recent days. Where weaning is yet to occur it is best to allow calves time to settle into their new environment and new diet before starting the weaning process.

For the majority, weaning will have already taken place, and so providing a quality diet alongside comfortable accommodation with decent airflow is the best management practice to minimise any outbreaks.

Over the winter months we would like readers to send in their animal health-related questions and we will get a vet to answer them and publish the answers on a dedicated animal health page over the next few weeks.

We welcome questions from all livestock systems, dairy, beef, sheep and anything else readers have animal health questions on. You can email questions to vet@farmersjournal.ie or WhatsApp them to 086-836 6465.

CAP Series

The Irish Farmers Journal, supported by AIB and the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine hold our next CAP information meeting on Tuesday 15 November at Errigal Country House Hotel, Cootehill, Co Cavan, at 7:30pm.

There are huge changes coming to payment rates and schemes, and at the meeting farmers can hear how the new CAP will affect farm schemes and your income.

There will be presentations and a questions and answers session where farmers can get answers to any queries they might have on the new schemes. The meeting is FREE to attend.

Register now at www.ifj.ie/register.