Silage 2020

[Sid]

No, and some of my bigger rents are very questionable in dry summers when they just become a very expensive place for cows to lie down.

Guess the only comparison to make is against if you were to purchase the forage.

Its cost alone is immaterial unless you have a benchmark to compare to.

 

[Cows 'n grass]

Guess the only comparison to make is against if you were to purchase the forage.

Its cost alone is immaterial unless you have a benchmark to compare to.

I think it shows that figures such as milk from forage or mopf are a waste of time if you're looking at them by themselves. They are KPI's created by consultants so they can pat you on the back and say what a great job you're doing.

 

[Sid]

I think it shows that figures such as milk from forage or mopf are a waste of time if you're looking at them by themselves. They are KPI's created by consultants so they can pat you on the back and say what a great job you're doing.

Oh 100% agree.

Went to a business accounts seminar, presenter asked what was first figure you look at on accounts, youngish lad shouts out profit, it's all about profit!

Ok, anyone else, Net worth I said. Lad looked at me like I was stupid, I said you can make a loss on paper, but increase net worth but lose money and pay tax!

Or indeed make a large profit but your net worth has decreased due to asset sale.

Moral is dont get fixated on one KPI

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Or cut for silage.

Isnt that what anyone does?
The whole home farm is for grazing / silage?

Most farms around here have designated silage ground . Hardly ever sees a cow

 

[The Grinch]

@Sylution, for a moment there I thought my dad had joined TFF ! ? Everything you say he agrees with 100% and has great pleasure in telling me everyday in winter when our slurry is like water.

 

[Sylution]

@Sylution, for a moment there I thought my dad had joined TFF ! ? Everything you say he agrees with 100% and has great pleasure in telling me everyday in winter when our slurry is like water.

?? How do you feel about it. I am happy with cow performance. And we do make 4 cuts of silage, so still multicut really. But tried 5 cuts for 2 years with 4 week intervals after 1st, and milk from forage did not improve was hoping to go from 4000lts to 4500lts, but went down to 3800lts in those years.?‍ Back to 3 clamp cuts of 6ish week interval and bale the 4th to clear up fields end of September. Cows definately healthier in the winter, which has pushed the milk from forage back up to just over 4000lts. Just my observation. I know what I say makes no sense on paper or with analysis of the silage!!!

 

[The Grinch]

We don’t milk now, only keep suckler cows but still do 3 cuts at roughly 6 weeks apart (different climate to wales). When it comes around to mowing I always want to start but dad says leave it another 10 days to which I reply it will be sh1t by then so we end up mowing it only for him to comment on how the cows are scouring in winter. It was the same when we milked. I am envious of all you chaps who mow multicut times and can keep cows healthy. Is it that you have to have a diet feeder or what’s the secret ?

 

[Tomtrac]

We don’t milk now, only keep suckler cows but still do 3 cuts at roughly 6 weeks apart (different climate to wales). When it comes around to mowing I always want to start but dad says leave it another 10 days to which I reply it will be sh1t by then so we end up mowing it only for him to comment on how the cows are scouring in winter. It was the same when we milked. I am envious of all you chaps who mow multicut times and can keep cows healthy. Is it that you have to have a diet feeder or what’s the secret ?

I think it is you spend more money buying straw to dry them up
As up here in south cumbria theres no straw grown just grass grass grass

 

[som farmer]

and for dairy rations, need a bit of scratch factor in the mix, its the same with grazing, ideal grass, cows look for a bit of fibre, difficult to argue with the computer ration, or with what the cows tell you. I think, perhaps we have complicated our dairy cow rations, to the benefit of the feed firms, rather than ours. A friends son, always aiming for high yields, now no longer milking, but working within the industry, has been amazed, at the amounts of milk, achieved on very simple systems/rations, and, if went back in, would never use the 'computer' complicated ideal ration again !

 

[Lewis]

Mushrooms a plenty in the 2nd cut regrowth..

Nutritional value of a mushroom for a cow I wonder ?

 

[Headless chicken]

monster crops here. Atleast 3wellies high.

 

[som farmer]

size 6 kids measure ?

 

[Headless chicken]

size 6 kids measure ?

the only way to measure grass

 

[The Agrarian]

We don’t milk now, only keep suckler cows but still do 3 cuts at roughly 6 weeks apart (different climate to wales). When it comes around to mowing I always want to start but dad says leave it another 10 days to which I reply it will be sh1t by then so we end up mowing it only for him to comment on how the cows are scouring in winter. It was the same when we milked. I am envious of all you chaps who mow multicut times and can keep cows healthy. Is it that you have to have a diet feeder or what’s the secret ?

No diet feeder here. No straw. If I wanted a more fibrous diet, I'd just take three cuts instead of four. There's no handy straw here either. Can't say I've got issues with watery dung. Yes, it can be pretty black at times, especially on 3rd and 4th cut. It's a very different dung to a heavy grain/maize silage/WC wheat/grass silage diet. But I almost always have two cuts open at once, usually to mitigate the negatives of a lesser quality clamp by complimenting it with a better one. We never get a perfect year for making four equal quality cuts. At least one gets delayed and drops in quality, or goes in wetter than it should. I'd like my bf higher, but I'm not prepared to use a diet feeder to push for it.

 

[Farmer_1994]

9 hours to mow 230 acres of alfalfa/ryegrass. Looks like it should be 3x as much as 1st cut with the ryegrass filling in where the winter killed alfalfa was. Started rowing up to keep ahead of the chopper tomorrow.

 

[The Agrarian]

Serious going. How many mowers? Width?

 

[Farmer_1994]

Serious going. How many mowers? Width?

1 set of triple mowers, 30 ft. Half this field is mile long pulls, other half is 1/2 mile pulls. Lots of time spent in crop.

 

[Shebb90]

Only if you can graze all your fields.

1 set of triple mowers, 30 ft. Half this field is mile long pulls, other half is 1/2 mile pulls. Lots of time spent in crop.

How big is the field?

 

[Farmer_1994]

How big is the field?

230 acres. All one field

 

[The Agrarian]

?. My biggest field is 14.??‍