Learnings from 2024 - have you enough high quality silage?
A delayed turnout on many farms over the course of spring 2024 has reaffirmed the requirement of having adequate stocks of high quality silage available to support cows during early lactation when grazing isn’t possible. But how much is required?
As part of the Ballyhaise’24 – Dairy Open Day, Joseph Dunphy, Grass10 Advisor, and Owen McPartland, Teagasc/Lakeland Joint Programme Advisor, reviewed the performance of farms over spring 2024 and highlighted some of the key lessons learned.
Summary of messages delivered:
- PastureBase data indicates that average pasture growth nationally to June 1st was 0.6t DM/ha below the five year average;
- The availability of high quality silage (>78% DMD) is critical to the performance of the herd throughout the spring and farms should put measures in place to ensure that at least 50% of their silage is of high quality for the milking cows;
- While mid-season can be a tricky period to manage pasture quality, the benefits of regular pasture measurement and the quick identification and removal of surpluses at this time of year will ensure that cows are consuming pasture of high quality.
Silage quality
If 2024 has taught us anything thus far, they explained, it is the importance of having adequate quantities of high quality silage in reserve as part of the overall farm strategy.
Joseph Dunphy and Owen McPartland pictured at the Ballyhaise24 Dairy Open Day
Table 1 below illustrates the demand for high quality silage in both spring and autumn at various stocking rates, and at various levels of opening average farm cover (AFC) on farms with an 85% six-week calving rate and a 10-week calving period for the herd.
Table 1: Effect of stocking rate (SR) and opening average pasture cover (AFC) on herd feed demand and requirement for silage supplementation within compact calving grazing systems
| Stocking rate | Opening AFC | Grass utilised in rotation 1 | Spring silage required | Autumn silage required | Total milking cow silage | Dry period silage | High quality silage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LU/ha | Kg DM/ha | Kg DM/cow | % required | ||||
| 2.5 | 750 | 703 | 201 | 630 | 831 | 840 | 50 |
| 1,000 | 783 | 121 | 630 | 751 | 840 | 47 | |
| 3.0 | 750 | 586 | 318 | 795 | 1,113 | 840 | 57 |
| 1,000 | 652 | 252 | 795 | 1,047 | 840 | 55 | |
| 3.5 | 750 | 502 | 402 | 870 | 1,272 | 840 | 60 |
| 1,000 | 559 | 345 | 870 | 1,215 | 840 | 59 | |
The availability of high quality silage (>78% DMD) is critical to the performance of the herd throughout the spring and into the grazing season. All farms should put measures in place to ensure that at least 50% of their silage is of high quality for the milking cows. After this, the replacement enterprise on the farm must also be supplied with high quality silage, therefore further increasing the quantities of high quality silage required on farm to 75 – 85% of the total winter feed.
The above piece was adapted for use on Teagasc Daily from the paper titled: ‘Grass10: Review of spring 2024 and lessons learned’ published in the Ballyhaise’24 – Dairy Open Day book. For further information on the lessons learned, access the full paper here.