silage ground

GERMAN ROCKS

grazed it off during the days and is now closed for silage. spread it all yesterday with lightish coat of slurry. thinking of spreading 2 bags of urea this year to the acre with the aim of cutting the 28th of may. Last few years only spread a bag and a half to the acre but am now running a bit short in silage. only enough left for about two-three weeks before completely gone so thinking the extra fertilizer might save me next year. what are your plans.

vincenzolorenzo

Is it not very early to be closing up for silage, even going for 28th May?

stanflt

vincenzolorenzo wrote: »

Is it not very early to be closing up for silage, even going for 28th May?

go for 2cuts-lighter swards-better quality-higher dmd-cattle will preform better offsetting against costof 2cuts

funny man

GERMAN ROCKS wrote: »

grazed it off during the days and is now closed for silage. spread it all yesterday with lightish coat of slurry. thinking of spreading 2 bags of urea this year to the acre with the aim of cutting the 28th of may. Last few years only spread a bag and a half to the acre but am now running a bit short in silage. only enough left for about two-three weeks before completely gone so thinking the extra fertilizer might save me next year. what are your plans.

i got caught out badly with urea last year didn't get a great response from it, plan for this year; i've it spread with a half bag of urea graze it in march and spread about 70 units of N CAN in April.

leg wax

GERMAN ROCKS wrote: »

grazed it off during the days and is now closed for silage. spread it all yesterday with lightish coat of slurry. thinking of spreading 2 bags of urea this year to the acre with the aim of cutting the 28th of may. Last few years only spread a bag and a half to the acre but am now running a bit short in silage. only enough left for about two-three weeks before completely gone so thinking the extra fertilizer might save me next year. what are your plans.

if you have closed it now you will have some heap of **** on the 28th of may because the butt will be rotten .paddys day would be even pushing it.

funny man

GERMAN ROCKS wrote: »

grazed it off during the days and is now closed for silage. spread it all yesterday with lightish coat of slurry. thinking of spreading 2 bags of urea this year to the acre with the aim of cutting the 28th of may. Last few years only spread a bag and a half to the acre but am now running a bit short in silage. only enough left for about two-three weeks before completely gone so thinking the extra fertilizer might save me next year. what are your plans.

if it was grazed out clean it will be dead on lad!

leg wax

funny man wrote: »

if it was grazed out clean it will be dead on lad!

everyone has their own ideas on quality silage fair enough it will be fine :rolleyes:

funny man

leg wax wrote: »

everyone has their own ideas on quality silage fair enough it will be fine :rolleyes:

If is grazed out tight what cover will be on it around 20th of March?

blue5000

If you're tight on silage, maybe split the N application on the silage ground now so you have the option of grazing it again at the end of march or into early april.

I wouldnt be inclined to close up silage ground until there is surplus grass on the farm. If you don't need the grass later on just give the silage ground the rest of the N in mid march.

Splitting the 1st cut is another option to stagger aftergrass in the summer, do this if you need to graze some of the silage ground in early april.

GERMAN ROCKS

last year I did graze up until around St. Patricks day and fertilizer straight after but I thought I might have more response from fertiliser if I left it green up a small bit.

dryan

is it not the case that cattle would do alot of damage to land at this time of the year?
unless we have an exceptionally dry spell between now and paddys day, i cant see the land around us (midlands area) drying out alot....or enough to let a few store bullocks onto without damaging the ground.
Grazing the silage ground in the spring time is not something that i do.
Sounds interesting though - might try it out on a bit of it this year to see if it makes any difference.

Muckit

dryan wrote: »

is it not the case that cattle would do alot of damage to land at this time of the year?
unless we have an exceptionally dry spell between now and paddys day, i cant see the land around us (midlands area) drying out alot....or enough to let a few store bullocks onto without damaging the ground.
Grazing the silage ground in the spring time is not something that i do.
Sounds interesting though - might try it out on a bit of it this year to see if it makes any difference.

You know dryan, we're the same here in Galway. Since started cutting silage earlier (for us;)) round june bank holiday, there's no way you'd get it grazed, because ground conditions so poor. Then you do have the problem of not getting rid of the dead butt, but regardless, I've still made great quality pit silage since bringing cutting date back. I think cutting date (especially with pit silage) plays a key factor if you want quality.

What I've done this year is topped all the farm including the silage ground tight last October. I ran the chain harrow on it there a week ago to remove dead grass. Hoping this will further improve things. I would, like yourself, like to try graze a few cattle on the silage ground before closing up, but I'd be fearful of wasting fertiliser putting it out too early with weather bad and also cattle cutting up.

I hope to walk the ground during the week and assess if I'd be able to get out with slurry maybe. I'd take a chance on this over the bag. Then top up with fertiliser after the grazing (if I can make it happen:rolleyes:)

How long would a lad want to have slurry out before you could let stock graze it??

Sat June 4 would be the cutting date. I need to leave it closed 10 weeks around here, which would bring me back to 26 March. That leaves 4 weeks from next Saturday... so I'd want to be making up my mind:rolleyes:

Edit: What I've seen our neighbour the dairy farmer do is let it out to a sheep farmer to graze off the butt during the back end, he doesn't graze in spring before closing up either. But I don't think i'd consider this option

reilig

Sat June 4 would be the cutting date. I need to leave it closed 10 weeks around here, which would bring me back to 26 March. That leaves 4 weeks from next Saturday... so I'd want to be making up my mind

10 weeks may be too long for getting the best quality silage off your ground. After 6 to 8 weeks the grass starts to get stronger and stemmy which isn't the best quality for top quality silage. You get a greater amount of silage off ground if its let grow for 10 weeks, but you have to make a choice between quantity and quality. Quantity is fine for suckler cows that you don't want to fatten but if you're trying to finish beef cattle, put weight on weinlings or produce milk then you need to have the quality in the silage and many farmers will take 2 or ever 3 light cuts of silage rather than 1 heavy cut just to have the quality - even around here where we have some of the poorest land in the country.

BeeDI

I always graze off the silage ground. Mid March till around 14 April. Quick run of the roller although, this year I'm going to chain harrow instead.
I go with 4 bags of cut sward to the acre. I cut first week June.

I'm getting much better quality silage than when I didn't graze in spring, and pretty much the equal quantity.
From my experiece, not grazing off the silage ground, is a waste of a free resource.

dryan

BeeDI wrote: »

I always graze off the silage ground. Mid March till around 14 April. Quick run of the roller although, this year I'm going to chain harrow instead.
I go with 4 bags of cut sward to the acre. I cut first week June.

I'm getting much better quality silage than when I didn't graze in spring, and pretty much the equal quantity.
From my experiece, not grazing off the silage ground, is a waste of a free resource.

Right, feck it! Im going to try this out this year. Just hope we get a few dry weeks from now on.
Im going to let them out mid march and graze silage ground for 2 weeks and then switch them over to the grazing ground.
Lets hope the weather works out.

reilig

dryan wrote: »

Right, feck it! Im going to try this out this year. Just hope we get a few dry weeks from now on.
Im going to let them out mid march and graze silage ground for 2 weeks and then switch them over to the grazing ground.
Lets hope the weather works out.

We use sheep to graze. They'll eat it to the roots and whatever comes up will be clean and of good quality. Cattle can damage silage ground if it gets wet.

Dunedin

reilig wrote: »

We use sheep to graze. They'll eat it to the roots and whatever comes up will be clean and of good quality. Cattle can damage silage ground if it gets wet.

sheep are the job alright. I used to always buy either a few store lambs or cull ewes and then sell them on again. problem is that even auld cull ewes are up on €100 so you actually need a right few pound to buy 20 or 30 ewes. God be with the day you could get them for not much more than a tenner. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

cannot get a neighbour to let out a few either 'cos they have all got out of them :D:D

JohnBoy

2 questions:

do ye have sheep fencing for the silage ground or how do ye keep them in?

if you've no cattle to graze the ground, or cant get them out in time would/should you top the silage ground to promote growth?

Nutcase

Im interested to know what DMD values people got last year after letting their cattle out to graze the silage ground before closing it off compared to not grazing it at all before its cut late May?
We dont graze our silage ground just graze it fairly tight November or until ground conditions allow.

Dunedin

JohnBoy wrote: »

2 questions:

do ye have sheep fencing for the silage ground or how do ye keep them in?

if you've no cattle to graze the ground, or cant get them out in time would/should you top the silage ground to promote growth?

all my land is together so I just leave all the gates open so need for fencing. If sheep have a good run, that's all they need. a longer run with less grass is much better for sheep than a lot of grass with less of a run.

In regard to the second part of the text, I'd say that if the grass is topped then it will only rot into the ground and stem the growth of new grass.

funny man

Nutcase wrote: »

Im interested to know what DMD values people got last year after letting their cattle out to graze the silage ground before closing it off compared to not grazing it at all before its cut late May?
We dont graze our silage ground just graze it fairly tight November or until ground conditions allow.

I only started grazing the silage ground a couple of years ago and i'd safely say it's worth about +5 DMD, we went from an average 70-71 to 74-76 consistently.

but we see no difference when grazed "very tight" in November V March provided there is no winter growth (not a problem this two years).

I don't like the idea of sheep wandering over alot of ground as they may grazed off any dead butt but they can deplete the root of nutrients especially if there is some growth, so i'd say sheep ok but when is eat get them off.

funny man

JohnBoy wrote: »

2 questions:

do ye have sheep fencing for the silage ground or how do ye keep them in?

if you've no cattle to graze the ground, or cant get them out in time would/should you top the silage ground to promote growth?

To that i'd say that diesel is not half dear enough!

dar31

would graze all the silage ground once and about 60% of it get grazed a second time before closing up for cutting last week in may.
last year dm 27% and dmd 72% me 10.5 and cp13.5.
managed to hit 80% dmd one year but think that was a fluke.

Nutcase

funny man wrote: »

I only started grazing the silage ground a couple of years ago and i'd safely say it's worth about +5 DMD, we went from an average 70-71 to 74-76 consistently.

but we see no difference when grazed "very tight" in November V March provided there is no winter growth (not a problem this two years).

I don't like the idea of sheep wandering over alot of ground as they may grazed off any dead butt but they can deplete the root of nutrients especially if there is some growth, so i'd say sheep ok but when is eat get them off.

Yeah if it was increasing your DMD by that much year after year then certainly it would be worth it but if there was any early growth would the cattle not have this all grazed off and leave less silage in the 1st cut?
Did you notice reduced yields after grazing yours first?

I would also disagree with sheep wandering over all the fields not fenced as they would just make holes in hedges walking from one field to another and destroy them imo.

Dunedin

Nutcase wrote: »

I would also disagree with sheep wandering over all the fields not fenced as they would just make holes in hedges walking from one field to another and destroy them imo.

never ever an issue for me. Once the sheep can use the gates to go from field to field, they were happy enough - that said, my fences/ditches are all good/blinded off so sheep never made any holes.

In regard to an earlier post, once sheep have eaten off the dead butt and before the new grass starts coming, I always sold them.

got them in to do a job, they done it, I moved them on, simple as.

RobinBanks

Sorry for butting in! but for the real amateurs like me! what do you mean by DM and DMD and how do you calculate it?

reilig

Nutcase wrote: »

Im interested to know what DMD values people got last year after letting their cattle out to graze the silage ground before closing it off compared to not grazing it at all before its cut late May?
We dont graze our silage ground just graze it fairly tight November or until ground conditions allow.

DMD of 79.1% with a NDF of 56% on round bales of silage taken from 20 acres of meadow. Sheep ate the meadow until May 1st. It was clean so no need to top it. It received a light coat of slurry (about 1000gal to the acre) and 1 1/2 bags of urea to the acre. It was chain harrowed and rolled and closed up at the start of the second week in may.

It was mowed on June 26th, tedded on June 27th and rowed and baled on June 28th and yielded 152 bales of 4x4 silage.

It proves the point that you don't need early meadow to have good quality silage - its all about how you manage grass growth. If i didn't eat the meadow off with sheep i would have needed to be spreading slurry/fertilizer and cutting it a month earlier to have the same quality in the silage.

Muckit

reilig wrote: »

DMD of 79.1% with a NDF of 56% on round bales of silage taken from 20 acres of meadow.

It was mowed on June 26th, tedded on June 27th and rowed and baled on June 28th and yielded 152 bales of 4x4 silage.

Hi Reilig

I would be like a previous poster, not too well up on the farming abbreviations

DMD = Dry matter digestability? Wouldn't have a clue what it means though. % DM I would get my head around.

NDF = now I couldn't even guess!:o

The return seems poor to me, then again quality over quantity as they say, and last year wasn't very growthy

jeff greene

Mine is sent to the US for testing, last years first cut, 14 May


DM 48%, CP 14.6%, ADF 27.1, NDF 48, Lignin 2.15, IVDMD 71.3

This will explain the terms

reilig

Muckit wrote: »

NDF = now I couldn't even guess!:o

The return seems poor to me, then again quality over quantity as they say, and last year wasn't very growthy

NDF = Neutral detergent Fibre = The amount of fibre in it.

The return was quite good I thought - especially for 7 weeks growth. Also, it was baled dry which reduced the bale count.

I took a second cut off 10 acres of it at the end of August and got 60 bales.

Quality was what i was after for fattening weinlings. The cows are fat enough and will survive on poorer quality silage.

Nutcase

reilig wrote: »

DMD of 79.1% with a NDF of 56% on round bales of silage taken from 20 acres of meadow. Sheep ate the meadow until May 1st. It was clean so no need to top it. It received a light coat of slurry (about 1000gal to the acre) and 1 1/2 bags of urea to the acre. It was chain harrowed and rolled and closed up at the start of the second week in may.

It was mowed on June 26th, tedded on June 27th and rowed and baled on June 28th and yielded 152 bales of 4x4 silage.

It proves the point that you don't need early meadow to have good quality silage - its all about how you manage grass growth. If i didn't eat the meadow off with sheep i would have needed to be spreading slurry/fertilizer and cutting it a month earlier to have the same quality in the silage.

Those are good results alright id say thats near enought the time when we cut our baled silage maybe a week or 2 earlier but we would never have grazed that year before cutting. We did graze some of the meadow one year but you could see the difference in the amount of grass from which was grazed and which wasnt.. So we dont pre graze anymore.

Never got bales tested before simply because they are just for the sucklers but would be interesting to see what sort of quality they are too. Where do you get yours tested, the same man who tests pit silage prob do both wouldnt he?