Wet weather in the west throughout the summer has meant that timely planning is needed for fodder supplies, farm finances and animal health this winter, farmers were told at a winter management event organised by DAERA in Omagh last week.

The recent spell of improved weather has allowed farmers to get late silage made and has eased some of the pressure on fodder stocks. However, the quantity and quality of silage on many farms, particularly in the west, is lower than required.

CAFRE beef and sheep technologist Dr Norman Weatherup advised farmers to draw up a winter feed plan to see how supply and demand of fodder balance out.

This involves estimating the quantity of silage on farm, carrying out silage analysis and then calculating the amount of silage required over the winter. It is also essential to continue to monitor fodder stocks against demand throughout the winter.

Norman recommended that farmers use the silage calculator within the online services section of the DAERA website.

For example, based on a 25% dry matter silage, the total volume of a clamp should be multiplied by 0.68 to get the weight in tonnes. On the demand side, average daily silage requirements are around 48kg for milking dairy cows, 35kg for suckler cows, and 5kg for ewes.

A silage analysis will also give an indication of the amount of additional feed required to sustain target liveweight gains.

Daily weight gain of a 300kg steer fed ad-lib silage with no concentrate is estimated at 0.70kg on “very good” quality silage, 0.35kg on “average” silage and 0.0kg on “poor” quality silage.

To save silage stocks, it is possible to increase the amount of straw fed to dry cows or young livestock. “But straw should be introduced gradually into the diet. It is a low energy and protein feed, so it should be balanced with concentrates, particularly if it’s being fed to growing heifers. With concentrate prices increasing this year, it might be quite an expensive option,” Norman said.

Options

Another option was to buy silage in, although he pointed out that this can raise issues with not knowing silage feeding value, particularly if buying round bales.

There are also alternative feeds, including soya hulls and low dry matter feeds such as bread. He said that soya hulls generally represented reasonably good value for money, but added that many low dry matter feeds were highly variable and can often be difficult to analyse, store and mix.

Other ways of reducing demand include moving livestock to bed and breakfast farms for wintering, selling livestock earlier than originally planned and, on suckler farms, weaning calves early and restricting silage fed to cows.

On beef finishing units, it may be possible to put cattle on to an intensive finishing diet earlier than planned. However, Norman advised not to start this too soon as cattle will become over fat. Ideally, steers should not be intensive fed until at least 500kg and heifers 450kg. “It is also expensive, so minimise this to no more than 100 days,” Norman said.

Best quality

He maintained that the best silage should be offered to the most productive livestock. If some silage is of low feeding value, then different cuts of silage can be mixed if there is a difference in quality.

“Fresh silage should be offered daily and not on top of low quality feed that was left over. It is also important that livestock have access to adequate feed space – for dairy cows this is 450mm to 600mm per head,” he said.

Passengers

DAERA vet Gemma Daly said that if fodder stocks are below requirements for the winter, then the first step should be to cull any “passengers” from herds or flocks. “Pregnancy diagnosis will allow you to get rid of any empty cows. Vets can scan cows from 35 days and diagnose pregnancies by dipping from six to eight weeks,” she said.

Farmers were advised to assess the cashflow of their businesses in time if finances are expected to be tight in the coming months by Ulster Bank senior agriculture manager Cormac McKervey.

“Figure out when money is coming in and going out of the farm business. This will allow you to see if there will be a shortfall and if so by how much and for how long,” he said.

Cormac said that potential options for bridging gaps in cashflow plans include extending merchant credit, stopping capital expenditure on farm, extending overdrafts, changing loan repayments to interest only and extending loans.

“Banks generally speaking do not have a big issue with going on capital holiday repayments (interest only) for six to 12 months with variable rate loans if you ask,” he said.

Cormac said that banks will want to know how long the capital holiday will be needed for or when an overdraft will be paid back, but added that this can be flexible.

He also pointed out that with the Bank of England base interest rates currently at 0.25%, monthly repayments on many farm loans could possibly be reduced.

Some loans that started when base interest rates were much higher (for example over 5%) may continue at set monthly repayments and will not reduce with falling interest rates until a review is requested.

Cormac recommended that farmers enquire to see if this applies to them by contacting their bank.

“The worst they can say is no,” he said.

Wet weather over the summer has meant that there is an increased risk of liver fluke in sheep and cattle this winter, DAERA vet Gemma Daly told farmers at last week’s meeting.

She reminded farmers that, unlike other parasites, older animals do not become immune to fluke.

Gemma advised farmers to discuss with vets which product to use for liver fluke control. “Flukicides only kill at certain stages in the fluke’s life cycle. A treatment now may require another treatment later in the winter as well,” she said.

Gemma also spoke about health risks from poor quality silage contaminated with clay or manure, such as listeriosis, botulism and diseases caused by mycotoxins. Acidosis may occur if highly acidic silage or high levels of concentrates are fed to cattle.

“Early housing due to the bad weather may lead to prolonged housing this winter. We need to consider risks that this brings about with pneumonia and lameness also,” Gemma added.