This year, it’s probably more important than ever to get your grass tested before knocking it. With the price of CAN, you’d want to be getting the full value out of it and ultimately you don’t want to have bad quality silage that doesn’t ferment properly. Low nitrogen and high sugar is what you want.

I heard of a farmer last week who sent his wife into their local merchant with grass for testing. The farmer’s wife stood nervously awaiting the results. When the results showed up, there was still a fair shot of nitrogen in the grass and the sugars were quite low.

The farmer’s wife was told to tell her husband to hold off for another week or 10 days, at least. Unfortunately, the grass was already knocked and they were waiting in the field with the baler. No wonder the wife looked so worried.

Another tip from the grass testers while I’m at it. They don’t need a calf-nut bag full of grass – a sandwich bag size will suffice.