Dairy
With second-cut silage secured on a lot of dairy farms, all farmers need to make sure they know what quality the silage in the yard is
N.Ireland
AgriSearch recently held a farm walk on red clover establishment on the farm of Francis McDonnell near Dromore, Co. Tyrone
Showers over the weekend may have halted mowers for parts of the country, but opportunities for silage being cut soon looks very promising.
For autumn calving herds and those that are winter milking, fertiliser would have been targeted in late March for an early cutting date.
Many farmers have started to dry off their first calvers and their thin cows, and perhaps they should body condition score (BCS)
As cows are progressing further into the lactation, closer to drying-off and closer to the housing...
Although there are still many cows in the shed, and grazing has not fully taken off yet, it’s now time for silage preparation to begin...
Harvesting high quality silage is vital for farms that will be milking cows in the shed next winter, and now is the time to place a...
There is now a growing concern that silage stocks are starting to run low on many dairy and livestock farms across Northern Ireland.
Silage slippage is a major challenge on many dairy and beef farms throughout Northern Ireland at the present time
Most dairy farmers in Northern Ireland will have sufficient silage stocks built up by this stage to get them through the coming winter
Dairy farmers should brace themselves for "the perfect storm" when it comes to silage quality this winter...
The housed period has begun on farms, with silage pits now being opened to feed stock for the...
Soil contamination is something that is not often talked about, but it can have negative impacts on forage intakes and production.
Beef
Wilting silage is one of the most important steps when making high quality silage - wilting increases the dry matter (DM) percentage of the grass.
Silage can never be as high a quality of forage as the grass from which it was initially made..
Grass
Over rolling high moisture grass in-silo serves only to significantly reduce silage quality
Swards grazed initiall are producing silages of a higher quality than those which were earmarked for conservation from the get-go.
The silage season has kicked into gear on farms across the country with farmers taking advantage of the good weather.
Decisions taken now and over the next six weeks will have a major effect on silage quality next winter, according to AFBI
The importance of silage analysis to beef finishers, was underlined at a recent farm walk of Kepak's feedlot organised by the Hereford Prime producer group.
