To whole crop or not

[cornishfarmer]

At moment feed 100 stores from the face and in round feeders. All first cut silage. With the price of feed going up thinking of doing first cut, 9 acres of undersown spring barley then a second cut on top.
Advice please

 

[dinderleat]

Can you grow maize?

 

[cornishfarmer]

Can you grow maize?

No. 800 feet neighbour tried a few years ago and got to 4 feet!!!

 

[dinderleat]

No. 800 feet neighbour tried a few years ago and got to 4 feet!!!

Under plastic? Neighbour grows it here at 800 with out plastic, you just need to grow the right variety. But in your situation a wholecrop probably would work winter wheat would be best but spring barley and a vetch might be good. Is there any maize locally you could buy?

 

[M-J-G]

Just bouncing some thoughts around
Are you maximising all of the energy that can be obtained from silage?

Is 3 cuts or cutting earlier an option.

Feeding at a face often limits intakes.
Rings are OK and very handy but you are regularly forced to make them clean everything up.
Is there an option to alter this to increase intakes?
For example if I have cattle I'm pushing on I give them about 10% more silage than they'll eat and then the following morning I push their daily left overs down the passage to cows or dry heifers, that way I'm not forcing the more precious cattle to eat up every stalk of silage. That way intakes and optimised

I appreciate you may not be able to do that if you don't have other stock to eat the leftovers.

None of these may be possible, but I'm just suggesting ways of getting extra energy into cattle with what you've already got rather than needing other crops.

With regard to wholecrop, I prefer a stack of straw bales and a heap of barley to wholecrop as it gives more options and flexibility.
I appreciate combining may not be an option.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

9 acres is sod all for 100 stores . Grow Italian Rygrass or Hybrid Rygrass and buy some fodder beet . Price of beet is the same as it was 15 year ago

 

[Dog Bowl]

I feed spring barley wholecrop to weaned calves and stores. All AA's. They get 75% rocket fuel late April grass silage and 25% wholecrop. I find it makes a lovely ration, the 2 forages complement and balance each other well.

You need to grow more than 9 acres to make it worthwhile though. If you've got it sandwiched in a clamp between two cuts of grass I feel it'll get lost and you won't be able to feed enough of it.