M-J-G
Member
Mostly for spring calving sucklers
We normally cut late June when Timothy is at full seed head (central Scotland)
All ground is grazed pretty hard with sheep into April, and PRG is currently just starting to show some heads.
We ted and dry down to almost hay to get max DM per bale.
With the cost of wrap and fuel this year are we best to go for bulk which will give us more bales to divide fert costs over, but give us more bales to handle and wrap?
Or cut now and have a higher fert cost per bale but less handling, fuel and wrap and more feed value in each bale?
Straw isn't an issue as we usually have surplus, so better silage can be restricted at suit as opposed to feeding more later cut silage.
Obviously the sooner I free up cutting ground the more grass I can build up for the autumn, which is another advantage of cutting earlier.
We normally cut late June when Timothy is at full seed head (central Scotland)
All ground is grazed pretty hard with sheep into April, and PRG is currently just starting to show some heads.
We ted and dry down to almost hay to get max DM per bale.
With the cost of wrap and fuel this year are we best to go for bulk which will give us more bales to divide fert costs over, but give us more bales to handle and wrap?
Or cut now and have a higher fert cost per bale but less handling, fuel and wrap and more feed value in each bale?
Straw isn't an issue as we usually have surplus, so better silage can be restricted at suit as opposed to feeding more later cut silage.
Obviously the sooner I free up cutting ground the more grass I can build up for the autumn, which is another advantage of cutting earlier.