What is your fodder situation?
Aidan Murray, Beef Specialist, emphasizes the importance of creating a winter fodder budget early, assessing available silage, calculating winter feed requirements, and planning accordingly to ensure sufficient feed reserves.
By the time we get to the end of this month, most if not all first- and second-cut silage should be in the yard, after what has been a long winter, a difficult spring, and poor growth in June. The ability to take out surplus grass for silage has been minimal.
With very little reserve of forage on farms from last spring, it is timely to sit down this month and complete a fodder budget with your advisor for the coming winter. It is best to act earlier rather than later. Now is the time to plan and act on your winter feed options. If last winter/spring signals what climate change can bring, then we need to reassess our winter feed requirements and aim to have one to two months of surplus feed in reserve (Table 1). This may take several years to achieve but we need to at least make a start, particularly on the heavier stocked farms.
Step 1: Assess what fodder you have available
Measure all pits of silage – length X breadth X average settled height – to calculate the volume in the silage pits in m3. As a rough guide to convert to tonnes of silage, multiply the volume by 0.77. For example, 100m3 = 77 tonnes of fresh silage at 20% dry matter (DM). If the silage is very wet (18% DM) multiply by 0.81, and if the silage is dry (25% DM), multiply by 0.68.
Step 2: Calculate your winter feed requirement
Table 1: Feed requirements for different types of animal.
| Animal type | Pit silage (t) needed per month | Bales (4x4) needed per month |
|---|---|---|
| Dairy cow | 1.6 | 1.8 |
| Suckler cow | 1.4 | 1.6 |
| In-calf heifer | 1.3 | 1.4 |
| Weanling | 0.7 | 0.8 |
| Store cattle | 1.3 | 1.4 |
Step 3: Is there a surplus or deficit?
With a bit of luck most farms will have adequate fodder on hand to cover for a ‘normal’ winter, but it would be a bonus if a surplus to cover an extra one to two months was on hand. Farms currently showing a deficit will have to move to step 4.
Step 4: Decide on your options
The level of the deficit will vary from farm to farm and this will determine what options are available to you. Less than a 20% deficit and you may look to close some ground for a late second or third cut.
Cutting winter demand by selling empty cows or finishing some stock off grass before housing may solve the issue, and will be attractive if store/beef prices remain buoyant.
Greater than a 20% deficit may mean the purchase of extra forage or feeding extra meal over the winter to stretch available feed, but this will impact on cash flow.
A combination of all the options may be needed. The important thing is to know where you stand and then you can react in an informed way.