Benefits of Analysing Your Silage ASAP

Analysing your silage, both pit and bales, five to six weeks after it has been made can be extremely valuable. It can tell you the following:

1. How much dry matter (ie energy and protein) you have available for next winter with an indication how much silage animals will eat when it is fed ad-lib.
2. This allows you to calculate any potential short fall in this winter’s feed supplies. Eg if you have a lot of very good quality silage you may need to feed more straw or if it is poor quality then much higher levels of concentrates will be needed to maintain performance.
3. This helps determine how much second cut you ideally need to make.
4. It gives time to prepare for harvesting cereals as animal feed eg as cracked wholecrop to provide extra forage or urea treated moist grain to provide more energy.
5. Will give an indication of how much protein supplement, if any will be required eg soya for ewes.

Overall knowing your silage analysis ASAP will significantly help you plan a cheaper, more efficient feeding programme for next winter at NO EXTRA COST compared with having it analysed in October!

Basil Lowman, basil.lowman@sac.co.uk.