Grass silage thoughts

Sylution · Mar 12, 2019

For the last 3 years, the silage made on this farm has been on a sort of multi cut system with 4 cuts clamped and 5th cut to tidy up and baled.
Whilst the silage has always analised well. The cows have not always milked anymore. And the 1st cut always deliveres the milk. Even if all other cuts are younger and look very lush.
This year I am thinking of reverting back to 3 cuts, and bulk the 1st up more, for mid to end of May harvest and not 1st week in May. My thinking is that I will have more quantity of the 1st cut which deliveres the milk, and would be more friendly to the rumen. Because I have cows shitting like they are on spring grass, all through the winter.
The hardest part might be to leave the mower in the shed if the weather is ideal at the beginning of May.
Also because the silage is young, It is liable to be very unstable at the clamp and feedout and heats up quickly. This was not such an issue when we were a 3 cut system. Except maby on the 3rd cut.

Just airing what my thoughts were during milking and volume washing sh1t in the parlour this morning.

davidroberts30 · Mar 12, 2019

What are the analysis for your cuts?

dairyrow · Mar 12, 2019

why not mix it with the other cuts in the wagon to make it last longer

vantage · Mar 12, 2019

Waiting till the end of May is fine if you have a weather crystal ball,ready to cut and then it pees down for a week,arghhhh! Leaving till mid May here is fine,we're at 800' ,go again at a month,then third and fourth play it by ear as at that stage of the season grass has changed from trying to seed to vegetative growth.Even better graze it rather than cut. Regarding heating of the clamp,use an appropriate chemical preservative,which should work well unless you make hay.
When you say cows haven't milked any better ,how have your solids been as for me supplying Arla that's what I get paid for and this winter we've averaged 4.5,3.6+,todays protein was 3.8,but cows have been out by day for 10 days.

ploughman1963 · Mar 12, 2019

If you delay first cut your quality will be compromised and you will end up feeding more expensive ingredients. We are going earlier and earlier each year with ME of above 12 for all cuts in order to get more milk from forage - I dont see the logic of your argument Im sorry.

Barmyfarmer · Mar 12, 2019

I see your arguement sylution, i don't want to go away from multicult really as I think it would be a step backwards, I'm going to try some whole crop this time to tame it down a little and make everything a little healthier

multi power · Mar 12, 2019

Sylution said:
For the last 3 years, the silage made on this farm has been on a sort of multi cut system with 4 cuts clamped and 5th cut to tidy up and baled.
Whilst the silage has always analised well. The cows have not always milked anymore. And the 1st cut always deliveres the milk. Even if all other cuts are younger and look very lush.
This year I am thinking of reverting back to 3 cuts, and bulk the 1st up more, for mid to end of May harvest and not 1st week in May. My thinking is that I will have more quantity of the 1st cut which deliveres the milk, and would be more friendly to the rumen. Because I have cows shitting like they are on spring grass, all through the winter.
The hardest part might be to leave the mower in the shed if the weather is ideal at the beginning of May.
Also because the silage is young, It is liable to be very unstable at the clamp and feedout and heats up quickly. This was not such an issue when we were a 3 cut system. Except maby on the 3rd cut.

Just airing what my thoughts were during milking and volume washing sh1t in the parlour this morning.

I'd suspect what your cows need is a small amount of very good hay for the rumen

davidroberts30 · Mar 12, 2019

multi power said:
I'd suspect what your cows need is a small amount of very good hay for the rumen

thats what i was thinking,scratch factor

Jamer · Mar 12, 2019

If you are wagon feeding, maybe NIS will do a job. We fed some up to Xmas to go with grass silage which analysed very well but was suspected to be high nitrates on the back of last summers drought. Cows milked well at highest fat we have produced. No DAs/acidosis or any other such problems.

Blue. · Mar 12, 2019

What are the neighbours doing?

stablegirl · Mar 12, 2019

I know exactly what the OP means we make young grass that analyses extremely well, but i cant help but think 1st cut is always the best and we take it so early we need to feed the later cuts because of a lack of bulk. The system is working but it does make me wonder, if i was to change anything i would just take first a touch later, because its difficult to make bad 1st then chase the rest of them very young because they do spoil quickly.

Sylution · Mar 12, 2019

No feeder wagon. Just blocks of silage in feeding passage daily. Last year silage cuts range from 11me to 11.8me.
I know my theory does not sound logical. But for me, I have given this silaging approach a go. And do not see the benifit for my system. Yeild from Forage has remained steady at around 4000ltrs for the last 8 years. And I did silage last year at 6th May, where as I used to be 24th May.
And with cutting often It seems as if silage time and opening and sealing a clamp comes around too quick. This is just my view of young silage. If I need to add straw, hay or wholecrop. I might just let the grass grow some more and save doing 1 cut.

I might be backward going forward here.

pappuller · Mar 12, 2019

Sylution said:
No feeder wagon. Just blocks of silage in feeding passage daily. Last year silage cuts range from 11me to 11.8me.
I know my theory does not sound logical. But for me, I have given this silaging approach a go. And do not see the benifit for my system. Yeild from Forage has remained steady at around 4000ltrs for the last 8 years. And I did silage last year at 6th May, where as I used to be 24th May.
And with cutting often It seems as if silage time and opening and sealing a clamp comes around too quick. This is just my view of young silage. If I need to add straw, hay or wholecrop. I might just let the grass grow some more and save doing 1 cut.

I might be backward going forward here.

Sometimes you can lose some of the poke of v young silage straight through the back of the cow so you add fibre to slow the flow but this adds cost, one probably balances the other but as to being any better off, I don't really know.

upnortheast · Mar 12, 2019

pappuller said:
Sometimes you can lose some of the poke of v young silage straight through the back of the cow s

Find whole crop Wheat complements rocket fuel grass silage
Mature silage will not produce milk, whatever else you add
Find starting early gives options. Last year we had 2 cuts in the pits before the drought took hold, Lots round here only got 1st cut before grass stopped growing.

bigw · Mar 12, 2019

We don't cut as many times as our season isn't long enough but I have also been questioning if we should be leaving our 1st cut a little longer to allow it to bulk a bit more. I think we really struggle with fibre in the diet and just end up having to add stuff in to slow the cows down.

buffalo_soldier · Mar 12, 2019

Whole crop.

Bit of faffing with no wagon, but you could spread a couple of grabs of it out first and then put your blocks of silage on top.

The spoiling is a secondary issue, additives can overcome this.

Which reminds me I need to get mine ordered.

upnortheast · Mar 12, 2019

buffalo_soldier said:
The spoiling is a secondary issue, additives can overcome this.

Which reminds me I need to get mine ordered.

Your prefered additive ?

buffalo_soldier · Mar 12, 2019

upnortheast said:
Your prefered additive ?

For grass?
Been using one from @Great In Grass for the last couple of years. Been very pleased with it.
Prior to that I was using Micronbio's offering.

Great In Grass · Mar 12, 2019

buffalo_soldier said:
For grass?
Been using one from @Great In Grass for the last couple of years. Been very pleased with it.

Nice to hear, same price this year as last with the exception of a very slight carriage increase. The wholecrop inoculant is very good too!

davidroberts30 · Mar 12, 2019

Get a drier silage? Add a bit of scratch that way

Grass silage thoughts

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