Farmer utilises crimped grain to overcome unpredictable weather

Luke Carling - magniva crimp.png

As seen in Farmers Guardian 30th July 2021

With an increasing trend towards more extreme weather in the latter months of the summer, moving to crimped grain
should be considered to take control of harvesting challenges and maximise the feed value of the crop.

Luke Carling of Partridge Farms Ltd, farms 750 acres on his Grandparent’s and Uncle’s family farm in Tiverton, South Devon,
milking around 300 cows through 6 Lely robots. In 2018, he decided to switch to crimping his barley.

“The main reason we decided to switch to crimped grain was due to unpredictable weather, which gave us a really short window to get the harvest in.
We were also concerned about the variable moisture levels we were getting across the field, making combining dry barley increasingly difficult.

“With the higher moisture content needed for crimping and treating, we can have longer days combining and catch the
crop before losing grain due to spells of bad weather. The fact that at the end of the combining process, we have a dust free,
‘ready to feed’ product is also a big bonus and saves on time spent milling small amounts like we used to.

“One of the great advantages we’ve found is that not only is the protein content higher because the crop is being harvested earlier,
it’s also a more palatable form of starch than straight cereal.

“We aim for a 60:40 split of grass and maize silage, along with crimp, hipro soya and molasses.
This is mixed and fed through a GEA MullerUp automated feed system.”

He explains that this has increased feed intakes, and they’ve seen a positive impact on milk protein levels, which currently sit around 3.38%.

“It’s also given us a cost saving as we’ve managed to feed more crimped grain in the ration, reducing the need for purchased compound feeds.”

One of the biggest challenges Mr Carling finds when making crimp is ensiling it. This is because it needs to be treated differently to other forages.

Crimp is much higher risk when it comes to spoilage in the clamp, being prone to fungal issues and the development of mycotoxins.
This is because it can be a challenging crop to compact, and it provides a lot of readily available nutrients for the spoilage microbes.

“We use Magniva Platinum Crimp a crop specific inoculant as it ensures a fast and efficient fermentation and a feed which is aerobically stable when opened reducing feed out losses.

“We have two crimp clamps that are 30ft wide by 10ft tall and 75ft long. We store roughly 350 tonnes in each clamp.
When feeding the crimped grain, we also use a shear grab at half depth to cut the crimp onto the floor before using a bucket to take it away.
This leaves a nice clean manageable face with minimal waste.

“I strongly believe that top-quality home-grown forage and grain is key to profitability and success.
By incorporating more home-grown feed into the diet, we are less vulnerable to hikes in purchased feed prices and have more control over our cost of production.”



Top tips for ensiling crimp forage

Lientjie Colahan, technical sales support at Lallemand Animal Nutrition, provides some specific top tips for ensiling crimped grain
to help maintain rumen friendly feed throughout the storage period. These tips should be applied alongside standard good ensiling practices.

Crimping

Once cereal crops are harvested, they must be put through a crimping machine which breaks open the seed coat of the grain.
This needs to happen within 24 hours of being harvested and should take place on a clean surface in or close to the clamp.

Treatment

The grain is commonly treated with an inoculant to ensure it is aerobically stable when fed.
To ensure the moisture content is right, the inoculant should be applied with water at a rate of at least 8 litres per tonne of crimp.

Clamp size

Each treated tonne of grain at around 40% moisture occupies approximately 1 cubic metre of clamp space.
When designing the clamp, keep the width of the compacting tractor in mind to ensure it can effectively compact the entire surface.
Try to keep the eventual clamp face as small as possible so that it can be moved across quickly at feedout to reduce spoilage and wastage.


magniva crimp banner.jpg
 

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