Why Making Quality Silage Pays

Grass silage forms the basis of most winter diets for dairy herds, and the quality of this silage determines the level of concentrate supplementation required to meet milk production targets. With margins coming under pressure on farm due to increased costs and a lower milk price, it is now more important than ever to ensure silage quality is maximised.

It has long been known by dairy farmers that producing milk efficiently requires maximising the milk their cows produce from forage. Milk production is often limited by energy intake, making maximising forage energy intake a key priority. There are two factors which determine a cow’s energy intake from forage:

• The metabolisable energy of the forage (silage quality)
• The cow’s forage dry matter intake (how much they consume)

In recent years, we have seen more farms move from 3-cut to 4-cut systems so that they are cutting grass at a younger, leafier stage. Research carried out by the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) examined the differences in silage quality, cow performance and farm profitability between 3-cut and 4-cut silage systems.

Table 1: Average silage quality achieved by the 3-cut and 4-cut systems

	3-CUT	4-CUT	DIFFERENCE
DRY MATTER (%)	31.9	34.4	+2.5
METABOLISABLE ENERGY (MJ/KG DM)	10.7	11.3	+0.6
CRUDE PROTEIN (% DM)	14.3	16.4	+2.1
FIBRE (% DM)	51.9	47.2	-4.7

Table 1 clearly shows that the 4-cut system produced higher quality silage, with increased energy and protein levels and lower fibre concentrations.

Table 2: Animal performance and farm financial results of feeding silage from 3-cut or 4-cut systems to milking cows

	3-CUT	4-CUT	DIFFERENCE
SILAGE INTAKE (KG DM)	9.5	10.4	+0.9
CONCENTRATE INTAKE (KG DM)	13.4	13.1	-0.3
MILK YIELD (KG/DAY)	37.3	39.7	+2.4
TOTAL FEED COSTS (£/COW/DAY)	£4.89	£5.12	+£0.23
VALUE OF MILK PRODUCED (£/COW/DAY)	£10.89	£11.60	+£0.71
MARGIN OVER ALL FEED (£/COW/DAY)	£6.00	£6.48	+£0.48

Cows fed the better quality 4-cut silage consumed 0.9kg DM more forage than those fed the poorer quality silage, due to its improved palatability and digestibility. As a result of  the increased energy intake from forage, cows fed the higher quality silage produced 2.4kg more milk per day, despite being fed 0.3kg less concentrates.

Total feed costs for the 4-cut system were higher than the 3-cut system due to increased costs of silage harvesting, but this additional cost was more than offset by increased milk production. The final Margin Over All Feed was £0.48 higher for cows fed the better quality silage, despite the increased feed costs.

Even with the cost of running machinery increasing, harvesting higher quality silage more frequently has been shown to increase milk production while reducing concentrate usage.

If you are interested in calculating your current Milk From Forage, or developing a plan to improve feed efficiency in your herd, please contact Nathan McClure on 07708 077467 or speak to your local Fane Valley Feeds Advisor.