An issue recently highlighted by AFBI chief executive Dr Sinclair Mayne is that results from silage analysis in NI suggest that silage quality on local farms has not improved over the last 20 years.

Hopefully, there is an opportunity to reverse that trend this year, given the weather over the past two weeks. A lot of dairy farms in particular have managed to get grass harvested in excellent conditions. Bulk might not have been great, but it should be possible to make up for lower first-cut yields in subsequent cuts. Waiting for a big first-cut yield often means higher feed costs and is detrimental to a sward in the long term, inevitably leading to higher reseeding costs.

The performance benefit from high-quality silage (D-value over 70; ME approaching 12) is clear, with research showing that for each unit increase in D-value, milk yield per cow increases by 0.3 to 0.4 litres per day. In the beef sector, to sustain 1kg of liveweight gain per day, where feeding poor quality silage (ME 9.8), 6kg of concentrate feed is required. Yet, if feeding a good-quality silage (ME 11.5), the same performance can be achieved on 1.5kg. On high-quality silage (ME 12), no concentrate is required to sustain that level of gain. While some farmers might reasonably hold back on making top-quality silage for dry suckler cows, other than that, the focus should be on making good silage when conditions allow.

As a wider industry, we also have to continually question the messages being given to farmers by CAFRE, AFBI, AgriSearch and other industry bodies. We all spend far too much time talking about breeds, systems, genetics and even new technology.

Most of the research done on grass and silage quality is from the 1980s and 1990s. In the meantime, new grass varieties have moved on, but the industry has been side-tracked by things that are not always key drivers of profit.