Feeding cattle at grass and measuring silage pits

Supplementation at grass

Where supplementation is not taking place for forward cattle, it is time to consider it. In autumn, the energy content of grass reduces. This, combined with low grass dry matter and a quicker passage of grass through cattle, can impact thrive.

Early spring-born weanlings should be offered 1-2kg ration/day for heifers and 2-3kg/day for bulls, especially if weanlings are being sold as the extra weight gain will cover the costs of creep feeding.

Where grass supply is diminishing or grazing conditions are extremely difficult, bulls should be housed by now as thrive will suffer. Any cattle that are to be finished off grass in September/October should be getting ration at this stage.

Heifers should be built up to 2-4kg and bullocks to 4-6kg of ration/day for 40 to 60 days prior to slaughter. Traditional breeds may not require much supplementation.

Feeding concentrates prior to slaughter should help improve kill-out and grade, but will also increase growth rates by about 0.2-0.3kg/day on autumn grass.

A simple ration with a high cereal content will be fine. A low protein ration will be ok for finishing cattle at grass.

Fodder budget

With a lot of second cuts wrapped up this week in the dry spell, it’s a good chance to determine where you are for fodder supplies ahead of the winter period.

If you know early that you are going to run short of fodder, you can take corrective action now in terms of growing a third cut or trying to purchase other forages such as hay or straw to make up the deficit.

Learning of a fodder shortage when you are staring at the back face of a silage pit at the end of next February confines your choices to buying silage or selling cattle.

Being forced into a decision like this is never a good place to be, so you are better to see where you stand now and take action quickly.

The first thing to do is measure your silage pit in metres (length x breadth x height) to calculate the volume of silage in your pit in terms of m².

To convert this to tonnes of silage you need to multiply the m² figure by .77. For example: A pit that measures 20 metres x 10 metres by 2.5 metres is 500m².

To convert this into tonnes of silage we multiply the 500m² x 0.77 (20% DM silage) to get the figure of 385 tonnes of silage.