Benefits of silage

Press, 15 October 1982, Page 23

Benefits of silage

(By Mr Norm Hart, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Lincoln) Many farmers in the Ellesmere area would gain benefits by switching some of their conserved grass from hay to silage.

The equivalent of more than one million regular rectangular bales of meadow hay are made in this area during a reasonable spring and early summer. But the equivalent of only an additional 150.000 bales is made as silage and the bulk of this is on dairy farms. Certainly, the last two years have pointed out some of hay's limitations, so this hay-silage ratio should be closer. The use of silage has been in cycles, with the new cycle coinciding with some refinements to the old system. These refinements in the last 15 years have been wilting and fine chopping. The resulting silage should be a high quality, sweet-smelling, easy-to-handle product as opposed to the old style which was often of dubious quality, was back-breaking to handle and you were “not nice to be near” after working with it. In the last five years there has been a swing back to silage use in the Ellesmere area, and now about 50 per cent of town supply farmers and 20 per cent of factory

supply would be making it. ' On some farms the change from hay to silage has been very dramatic — on one farm, where 15,000 bales of hay had been made and used in the past, only 5000 are now made with the balance in the form of silage. At present, very few sheep farmers make use of silage, but it is something that could be very worthwhile judging by other local livestock farm types, and by sheep farmers in many other areas of New Zealand. Advantages of silage over hay are: The timing of the operation can ■ be earlier in the season if a genuine feed surplus occurs. Very good quality silage can be made in October if necessary. For best results, the pasture should be ryegrass dominant and in the early flowering stage. Mowing after two to three days of sunshine will boost plant sugar levels. Because it is made at an earlier stage of growth than hay, there is less rotting and opening out in the base of the sward, with the result that pasture recovery is ■ much better. With it being made earlier in the season, there is also more chance of rain occurring to aid recovery. Regrowth in hay paddocks is often poor. Pasture regrowth tends to be clover dominant making it very good for lamb finishing feed. The actual harvesting and storing operation takes far less time and is usually done mechanically. Allowing for the farmer to mow the crop and cover the pit or bunker later, a contracting team of four men

with a tractor and forage harvester, two trucks and a payloader will handle 20 to 25 ton (costing $l7O-$lBO per hour). This is equivalent to baling, carting and stacking 300 to 400 bales per hour (15 to 20 large round bales). Generally, making and storing costs of silage are about two thirds that of hay on a feed equivalent basis. At a cost of eight to $lO per ton silage stored and covered relates to 50 to 65 cents per bale stored. Well-made silage has a better feed value than wellmade meadow hay. It can be used as a production feed because of its better value Dairy cows will milk on it. beef cattle will grow on it and as several trials have now demonstrated, ewes can be flushed on it. It is very debatable whether all of these can be achieved with meadow hay. Crop residues and straws provide a useful feed for livestock in this area. As they are a low quality feed, stock are limited to the quantities they can eat and are lucky to maintain liveweight. It is not a ewe flushing feed. Farmers should be looking at the costs, benefits and problems of their supplementary feeding systems. It is quite possible that finechop, wilted-grass silage has distinct advantages over alternatives and this should increase farm profit. This has been readily demonstrated on dairy farms locally and in trials. There may not be a feed surplus this spring, but when one does occur, silage is the best means of transferring it to ( times of feed shortage.