Grass silage is expensive to produce and when a land charge is factored in, first cut silage is now costing in the region of €300 per acre to grow and ensile. According to Agritech Sales Director, John Kenny, it is therefore most important that the desired level of quality is achieved as often as possible.
“With lengthy dry periods no longer in existence, quality silage is an essential requirement for the freshly calved cow as it will help support early lactation milk yield and allow the cow to return to cyclicity as quickly as possible.
“For beef cattle, a daily live-weight gain of 0.6 kg is considered the optimum for winter performance where the animals are returning to grass in the spring. Quality silage will again play a key role in achieving this growth level,” John explains.
Silage samples recently analysed show significant variations in quality, with many Irish beef farms estimating an average of just 66% dry matter digestibility (DMD). The difference between good and bad silage quality has a significant impact on animal performance. In the winter of 2012, Teagasc in conjunction with the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF), conducted a study on weanling performance on 18 farms when housed. The results indicated a significant shortfall in live-weight performance, despite all of the farms feeding 1 – 2.5kg of silage/head/day. Only four of the 18 farms had a daily live-weight gain in excess of 0.51 kg and seven of the farms had an average daily live-weight gain of just 0.25kg.
According to John, silage of 75% DMD in quality must be a target for farms going forward. Quality silage starts with quality grass cut at the correct growth stage. Every silage field which contains a high proportion of perennial ryegrasses will have a sward of 80% DMD by the middle of May. Once grass silage fields go past this, they lose an average of 3% DMD units per week, with this loss increasing to 6% DMD units in poor weather or lodged crops.
“The application of a proven silage additive at ensiling is a very important part of securing as much of the quality in the winter forage as possible. It speeds up the preservation and retains more of the feed value within the pit, in addition to retaining more actual silage in the pit. In fact, the extra retained silage alone will cover the cost of the additive,” says John.
Our GrasZyme SugarBoost Forage Additive has long proven itself as an effective silage preservation aid and is formulated with accelerated fermentation and animal performance as the primary focus. Having undergone numerous trials on dairy and beef research institutes throughout Ireland and the UK, the additive has shown daily milk yield increases of 1 litre, a 0.09% increase in milk protein and 110g extra daily live-weight gain.
For more information, contact your local Agritech distributor
About 80 percent of all breast cancers grow in response to the hormone estrogen, so finding a way to block the body s estrogen production is crucial for cancer treatment finpecia tabletten
Can you be more specific about the content of your article? After reading it, I still have some doubts. Hope you can help me.
Can you be more specific about the content of your enticle? After reading it, I still have some doubts. Hope you can help me.
Wow, amazing blog structure! How long have you ever
been running a blog for? you made running
a blog glance easy. The entire glance of your website is wonderful, as well as the content!
You can see similar here sklep online
Wow, superb blog format! How long have you been running a blog for?
you made running a blog look easy. The whole look of your site
is excellent, as smartly as the content material! You can see similar here sklep
I really like your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you design this website yourself or did you hire someone to
do it for you? Plz respond as I’m looking to design my own blog and would like to find
out where u got this from. thanks a lot I saw similar here: Sklep
Wow, incredible blog structure! How long have you ever been blogging for?
you made blogging glance easy. The full look of your website is fantastic,
as neatly as the content material! You can see similar here dobry sklep
Wow, incredible blog structure! How long have you
been blogging for? you make blogging look easy. The overall look of your site is great, as well as the
content! You can see similar here sklep internetowy
Hi there! Do you know if they make any plugins to help with Search Engine
Optimization? I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m not seeing very
good results. If you know of any please share.
Many thanks! You can read similar blog here: Sklep
It’s very interesting! If you need help, look here: ARA Agency