Ensuring you have enough fodder for winter 2024-2025
Following a wet start to 2024 and a prolonged winter housing period, silage and fodder reserves on many farms were completely exhausted this spring. Grass growth to date in 2024 has been poor with further supplementary feeding of fodder taking place in recent weeks on some farms.
It is essential to know how much fodder is required in order to make a plan. Complete a fodder budget for your farm - a template for which is available below - and include a 20-25% buffer to take into account the possibility of a prolonged winter feeding period again this year.
Table 1: Winter fodder requirements 2024-2025
| A | B | C | (A x B x C) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Animal type | Number of stock |
Number of months (include 4-6 week buffer) |
Number of bales per month | Total silage required |
| Dairy cow | 1.75 | |||
| Suckler cow | 1.70 | |||
| 0-1 year | 0.90 | |||
| 1-2 year | 1.35 | |||
| >2 year | 1.70 | |||
| Ewes | 0.17 | |||
| Total silage bales required | ||||
| Total tonnes of pit silage required (total bales / 1.1) | ||||
Every opportunity to harvest silage should be made for the remainder of this grazing year. Plan for second cuts as normal on all fields that are not required for grazing. A third cut may also be targeted on some fields in September. On grazing ground, any extra grass grown should be cut and saved as high quality baled silage.
Can some stock be finished off grass? Is it an option to finish some animals from grass with/without concentrates this autumn, thereby reducing the grazing demand in the back end of the year and more importantly reducing the winter fodder requirement?
Can silage bales be sourced locally in order to enhance the silage stock on farm? Buying locally can be of great benefit if you have knowledge of the farm that the bales came from.
Renting land for a 6 to 8 week period where you can fertilise the ground in order to cut a crop of silage maybe an option in parts of the country. Sourcing land in close proximity to your home farm is key.
Where silage is going to be tight next winter, in some instances, the growing of forage crops like forage rape maybe an option. These crops may be an option in fields that are planned for reseeding next year.
In some of the tillage areas of the country, linking up with a tillage farmer to purchase whole crop silage, maize silage, grass silage, beet etc. on contract may be an option. If going this route, it would be important for all parties to complete a contract cropping agreement in advance so that everyone knows their obligations.
This article by Pearse Kelly, Head of Drystock Knowledge Transfer in Teagasc, and Gordon Peppard, DairyBeef 500 Advisor, first appeared in the Farming for a Beef Future Open Day proceedings. Click here for more information shared at the open day.