Feed and Forage [DA.FF]

Managing The Transition Onto Forage Crops

It takes around three weeks for rumen bugs to adapt to a change in diet. If we change diet abruptly, the rumen struggles to cope and digestive upsets occur such as bloat, acidosis and/or loss of performance. If done badly, you can put the livestock off eating the crop altogether and, in severe cases, farmers have lost livestock due to poor transitioning.

A Guide to Feed Budgeting

Forward planning forage supplies helps understand whether you will have enough conserved forage to meet the livestock demand – this is becoming more critical as weather is fluctuating more from…

Best Practice Procedures For Making Baled Silage

There are a number of important steps during the silage making process which can influence nutritional of the end product, impacting on livestock performance and cost of production. This factsheet gives advice on when to cut grass for silage, how long to wilt for, use of additives and handling and storage of bales. Environmental considerations of baled silage are also discussed including forage budgeting and type and amount of plastic used.

Making the most of Red Clover

Red clover benefits As a forage legume, red clover has the ability to fix nitrogen due to the presence of bacteria in the root nodules. During establishment and growth of…

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