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Protect Your Silage

After the effort involved in making good quality silage, it makes sense to protect it. A few simple steps during storage can help prevent significant losses in silage quality to provide the best feed for your milkers.

By Department of Primary Industries - 18th December 2003 - Back to News

Air is the greatest enemy of silage. If exposed to air mould will develop, resulting in losses in both quality and dry matter. Well-sealed and protected bales can prevent substantial losses in dry matter and quality.

Even small holes in stretch film can lead to spoilage deep into the bale. Be sure to check all bales for holes and splits that may have occurred. Stalks poking through plastic will eventually rot off allowing air to enter. Repair any holes with stretch film tape, making sure the plastic is dry and free from dust to ensure an effective seal.

If a spike is used to move bales, regardless of whether the bale is wrapped or not, grass, silage or some other filling material should be packed into the spike hole to force out the air before sealing.

Consider storing round bale silage rolls on their ends. The wrapper has put more layers of plastic over the ends of the bales and therefore the plastic is less likely to puncture, or be damaged by UV rays. There is greater surface area for the bale to rest on, reducing the stress on the plastic and less likelihood of bird, grub and mouse damage. When stacked on their end bales retain their shape, which makes them easier to feed out.

To discourage vermin store bales on bare areas, away from known rodent habitats like sheds, trees or silos. Baits can also be laid around the area. Tyres sitting on top of bales can be used to discourage birds if they are a problem. Also keep a check on all storage areas for damage by grubs, mice, ants, birds and cattle.

EXTENDING LACTATION
WILL IT WORK FOR YOU?

Extended lactations have emerged as a potential mechanism for increasing the profitability of some Victorian dairy farms. Dairy farm systems that involve milking at least some cows for longer than the standard 300 days could have advantages in terms of:

• Efficiency of labour use
• Cow reproduction performance - cows have more time to get in calf
• Less cow wastage – fewer non-pregnant cows culled
• Reducing calving induction
• More consistent cash flow
• Premiums for winter milk.

GippsDairy and DPI recently funded research aimed at assessing the relevance and potential profitability of extended lactation systems on Victorian dairy farms. Extension specialists Greg O’Brien and David Cole at DPI Ellinbank have led the research.

The research took the form of a farmer survey to define if, how and why dairy farmers in Victoria would like to use extended lactation to increase the profitability of their farm businesses. Information was gathered from around 60 farmers during face-to-face group interviews, and a further 250 dairy farmers were interviewed by telephone using a structured questionnaire. Selected farmers were located in all three regions of Victoria – including Gippsland, and included small, medium and large herds.

The results showed that one in ten respondents had already implemented an extended lactation system with an average of 18.4% of their herd. A further 30% of farmers were interested in adopting an extended lactation system in the future ("potential adopters"). This figure increased to 48% in the hypothetical scenario of induced calving being banned. Current and potential adopters were most likely to be those farmers that:

• Split or batch calved
• Milked more than 300 cows
• Had a large labour force
• Undertook herd testing
• Had computer management software
• Fed high rates of concentrates (>1.5t/cow)

Of all cows in the herds of farmers surveyed, 56% were managed by either current or potential adopters of an extended lactation system. Overall, benefits of extended lactation were perceived by farmers to include greater and more persistent production, consistent income, improved conception rates, improved cow health, less cows culled, and improved profitability. Disadvantages of the systems were perceived to include higher feed costs, negative impacts on lifestyles – less opportunity to take holidays, complexity of management, and negative impacts on the physical condition of the farm.

The survey showed that there is genuine interest in extended lactation systems amongst Victorian dairy farmers. It also indicated that any future research needs to provide farmers with information about the economic feasibility of the system, nutritional requirements, effects on cow health, milk production, health effects, labour requirements and farm management strategies. To address some of these issues, an extended lactation experiment has begun at Ellinbank. It aims to manage groups of cows for lactations ranging from 10 months to 22 months.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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