Forage and feed plan essential as feed may be tight
Far Harvest Bined Also Be Barley Not Winter Away, With The The To First Be Will Main Is Cereal
It is time to start doing feed budgets for clients for the coming winter. It may only be July, and hopefully, we will all make plenty of silage before the year is out, but plans for winter feeding need to be put in place now.
But unfortunately, hope won't feed stock for the winter. Second-cut silage will be saved over the coming weeks, and once that is done, everyone will have a clearer picture of the feed supplies that are available. We must, based on past years' experiences, plan for extra feeding days where extra fodder would be required, so assessing requirements sooner rather than later is essential.
Beyond first and second cuts, an amount of third cut and bales will still be made but the vast majority of which will be saved once second cuts finish.
The harvest of whole-crop cereals will also start soon. These autumn-sown crops, in general, look ok but will not be setting any records for yield. Spring crops to be harvested later in the summer and a serious mixed bag and many will be low on grain and straw yields.
The main cereal harvest is also not far away, and hopefully, the weather will be kind. Winter barley will be the first to be combined. The price of grain off the combine again looks like being valuable for livestock farmers, and if at all possible, it should be traded farm to farm to keep animal production/feed costs down. If you are buying, you must consider the quality available and this will obviously determine the price too.
Maize silage crops have really bounced out of the ground in the last few weeks and are now caught up to target. If all goes well over the next few months, these crops will produce excellent feed to supplement grass silage in dairy and beef diets.
Fodder beet was set late this year and still has a bit of catching up to do, but obviously, unlike maize, its harvesting date is not set to the autumn, so it has time to grow and bulk.
Maize, whole-crop and beet may be good options to purchase if you discover that you will not have enough of your own feed saved. All three will be significantly higher in energy and feed value than any grass silage that might be available to purchase.
During last spring, many ran out of feeding straw and discovered very quickly that if they could locate it that it was very expensive relative to what they had paid out of the field at harvest.
Calculate your requirements and book your full requirement before it has left the field.Cereal acres are lower than recent years and straw yield per acre will very likely be lower too so a deficit is inevitable.
Grass growth has improved around the country recently and, for the first time since last summer, is now providing excellent feed value. Some grass still remains quite stressed due to a lack of nutrients as a result of late application in the spring and weather reducing its availability. Keep grass growing well with sufficient fertiliser application as it will soon be time to begin banking grass.
- Brian Reidy is an independent ruminant nutritionist at Premier Farm Nutrition.
