Adding value to your grass silage

Improvements in profitability can be achieved when feeding better quality silage and using bought-in energy and protein blends, says independent beef nutritionist Lizz Clarke of LC Beef Nutrition.

It will not be long before we hear the familiar sound of the forage harvesters in the fields gathering in the grass to ensile for this year’s winter feed. Love it or hate it, it’s a major part of the farming year and the basal feed for many farmers, but do we give it enough attention to get the most out of this valuable product?

Concentrating on when you harvest and how you store and manage the storage greatly impacts the quality. Also by identifying what class of stock you are feeding the forage to (eg. milking cows, finishing cattle, suckler cows etc), taking into account their dietary requirements, and tailoring the forage for the specific class of stock, will mean less cost by reducing the supplementary feeds required.

An example of this can be seen in the table below (the prices referenced are for demonstrative purposes only whereby individual costs may vary).

Looking at a proposed finishing diet for continental cattle, using a 34% protein blend (£360/t), a 13MJ/kg ME energy blend (£250/t), and forage (£35/t) then looking at three different forage results. The below is balanced for 12.5kg dry matter intake, 14% Crude Protein and 12.2MJ/kg DM.
The cost difference between Finisher 2 and Finisher 3 is 77p. Multiply this over 100 days to finish makes £77 per head difference. If you have one hundred finishing cattle on the mix, this is a staggering £7,700 margin. There are other factors to consider (minerals, fibre etc), but the principle is still the same.

Quantities	Grass silage clamp 25% DM, 10.4 MJ/Kg ME 12% CP	Grass silage clamp 27.5% DM, 11.5 MJ/Kg ME 14% CP	Grass silage clamp 30% DM, 9.0 MJ/Kg ME 10% CP	Protein blend	Energy blend	Cost per day
Finisher 1	17.50			1.15	8.25	3.09
Finisher 2		26.75		0.45	5.50	2.47
Finisher 3			10.20	1.40	9.50	3.24

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