What are you doing to fill the pit?

delaval

With every silo, hayshed and haggard in the country empty, what are we going to do about it?

With growth slower and later than normal in some areas and with the wet of land as witnessed on Prime Time last evening I thought it deserved some discussion.

What I am hoping for is that people would post the measures they are taking and why in order to help some people.

I would hope that this would be a positive thread loads of other places to moan;);)

maxxuumman

Taking first cut earlier on Mon @8 ton, rather than letting it bulk up. Hoping second cut comes in with some good tonnage. Mean while any paddocks getting picked out ( none yet), continuing with 1 bag of urea/acre. Overstocked, but getting by and this week is looking very good for grass
Then fcuking off to France in 3 weeks time for 18 days of wine, fine dining and time with the family. Like a bullock, I thrive when I get some sun on my back

whelan1

taking first cut next week, then doing bales on another 20 acres and hopefully do 60 acres second cut, get some bales off strong paddocks and wholecrop aswell, all going to plan.... i am not worrying about next winter, take each week as it comes and work towards the next week, no use fretting over something thats 4 or 5 months away at this stage

Dampintheattic

1. Most likely cutting two to three weeks earlier than usual. Probably get 20% less bales. Better quality hopefully.
2. Will do second cut which haven't done in many, many years. Hope that will bring me up to 150% of my usual first cut number of bales.
3. Few areas of grazing ground suitable for machinery fenced off, and hopefully get some bales off that. Might get me to 170% of my usual annual quota of bales.
4. Will never again feed straw to in calf sucklers. By the time it gets to my shed, it's costing €20 a bale. Takes up valuable storage space. More efficient for me to use rolled oats as a filler for cows prior to calving. Bagged minerals with the oats.

If I'm not in NAMA after all that, I'll survive a long time in farming:cool:

grazeaway

have already had to graze 1/3 of my silage fields so will be hoping for a second cut later in the summer, have resseded another field and undersown with barley so that will hopefully add a few more feeding too. Have straw left over so will get more again this year and mix it with the silage during the winter.

kevthegaff

have 71 acres spared up for mid/late july, then hopefully some bales as well 45 acres is leased of that, 10 more than last year:)

Dampintheattic

whelan1 wrote: »

taking first cut next week, then doing bales on another 20 acres and hopefully do 60 acres second cut, get some bales off strong paddocks and wholecrop aswell, all going to plan.... i am not worrying about next winter, take each week as it comes and work towards the next week, no use fretting over something thats 4 or 5 months away at this stage

Are you sure? Global warming is a sham. Global cooling is here. Cold winters. late springs. More fodder needed. http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2013/05/26/to-the-horror-of-global-warming-alarmists-global-cooling-is-here/

Timmaay

Thankfully wont be short on fodder ourselves, due to a low stocking rate for our land. But still going to push on and maximum what I can get out. In most normal years unused bales etc can go to waste as there tends to be very little demand for fodder in the local area, so it use to be easier and probably cheaper just to pull out the topper and top the grass come late summer etc!! This year the aim is certainly to avoid that, extra fields have been taken out on the milking block for cutting, with a higher stocking rate on the rest of the block which has resulted in tighter grazing etc. As well as this, alot more spraying of weeds has been done throughout the farm to help maximise the grass grown.

Further to this, I will certainly consider a cull of a good few unproductive cows later in the year assuming the arse has not fallen out of the cull cow price then! This all should leave me with a decent surplus of fodder which should not be too hard at all to flog on.

Dozer1

trying to balance current feeding requirements while need to build reserves for the winter, current plan is to shake alot more fertiliser than other years and take silage as early as I can.
last of the cattle only went out Saturday morning and made first of my silage bales Saturday afternoon its that kinda year I guess.

hope to take more acres for second cut but all depends on getting some heat for growth.

Plan to feed more straw also if I can get it at a fair price.

failing that......cull hard

blue5000

Have a few acres of arable silage, + headlands off a couple of barley fields might find there way into a silage pit.

jaymla627

Taking 45 acreas of first cut next week, all ground will go back in for second cut first time in 15 years a second cut will have been done, sowing 10 acreas of kale next week also.
Along with taking out paddocks and have another 30 acreas reseeded last week will proberly take a cut of bales of what can be spared in the back end not looking forward to the contractors bill, hez laughin though:rolleyes:

bob charles

I have 3ac of silage to do, after that I havnt a clue

bogman_bass

Dampintheattic wrote: »

Are you sure? Global warming is a sham. Global cooling is here. Cold winters. late springs. More fodder needed. http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2013/05/26/to-the-horror-of-global-warming-alarmists-global-cooling-is-here/

Not once does it show any evidence of any global cooling now.

The reason we have had cold wet summers is more polar ice melt sending the gulf stream further south

whelan1

Dampintheattic wrote: »

Are you sure? Global warming is a sham. Global cooling is here. Cold winters. late springs. More fodder needed. http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2013/05/26/to-the-horror-of-global-warming-alarmists-global-cooling-is-here/

alot of people have been worrying since this time last year, no point scare mongering til it actually happens imo, deal with the situation then

delaval

whelan1 wrote: »

alot of people have been worrying since this time last year, no point scare mongering til it actually happens imo, deal with the situation then

Couldn't agree less 'fail to plan, plan to fail'.

whelan1

delaval wrote: »

Couldn't agree less 'fail to plan, plan to fail'.

my plan is to have a month worrying about nothing .... some people in my area have died due to this spring, some people need a break not to be reading about global warming and such crap....

jaymla627

whelan1 wrote: »

my plan is to have a month worrying about nothing .... some people in my area have died due to this spring, some people need a break not to be reading about global warming and such crap....

In realation to farming realated suicides this spring a host of other factors come into it bar the weather, the number one problem i see is lads thinking about what the neighbours are saying about them and irish farmers connection to their land, if anyone out there farming at the min is seriously considering suicide due to whats occuring at the present time please for your own sake either consider getting out of farming by leasing/selling up our talk to someone,this thing of not selling up/renting out your farm because of what the neighbours will be sayin really has to stop its a far better option then the alternative some farmers have took and having seen first hand far to many times recently what it has done to families in my own area its soul destroying to see.

delaval

whelan1 wrote: »

my plan is to have a month worrying about nothing .... some people in my area have died due to this spring, some people need a break not to be reading about global warming and such crap....

Sorry didn't read properly I was talking about farming not global warming. I cannot do a thing about global warming so like you do not worry about it

Dampintheattic

bogman_bass wrote: »

Not once does it show any evidence of any global cooling now.

The reason we have had cold wet summers is more polar ice melt sending the gulf stream further south

Whichever way you like. What we have had these past five or six years, is more cold snaps like the big freeze ups a few years ago. More cold harsh east winds in March and April. More rain spring and summer.
Less grass growing. More grass being underutilized due to wet ground conditions.
More fodder needed. Vicious circle.
Going into next winter without a plan to take the lessons of this year on board, is whistling past the graveyard. IMO.

whelan1

Dampintheattic wrote: »

Going into next winter without a plan to take the lessons of this year on board, is whistling past the graveyard. IMO.

thanks for putting the graveyard bit in.....

Dampintheattic

whelan1 wrote: »

thanks for putting the graveyard bit in.....

Ah, it's just a saying. Don't take any notice!

mf240

Going to bale every little bit of grass that I can spare. Will do more third cut than usual. and will continue to feed meal to cows and hope to gather up around 100 bales from dairy platform.(dont usually get much there) Will spread fert late on another hilly rough outfarm and try to keep weanling out on it till new year. Have cut beef numbers.

I find a problem becomes very small once a plan of action (however unpalatable) is in place.

jomoloney

back to op's query,

it will be a struggle to get our quota of forage, we had to graze some of the silage ground , remainder will be baled next week, and hopefully baled again whenever,

first and second cut will now be one late cut circa 1st July we will bale every spare paddock and corner we can spare until Mid Sep.

I have just watched last night's prime time and see the conditions of the cavan man, & it made me appreciate the conditions we have ourselves although I always classed our land as well below average.

we are heavily stocked but at the moment but have no intention of cutting back just yet

1chippy

We are putting an extra 10 acres into the pit, grass is actually doing pretty well here. It came at an added cost with extra fertilizer but it has us on target. Usually take around 7 or 8 acres of second cut which is nearly always sold on, i'll be holding it out this year and hopefully stick in another 7 or 8 on top of that. I am hoping to buy in a bit more straw too but reckon its going to be pretty steep this year with what looks like a high demand for it. How are lads working with the nitrates with all the extra fertilizer. we usually come in just under but this year may involve a bit of cash purchasing.

bob charles

have many have talked to your merchants about rations and grains for next winter?

Timmaay

bob charles wrote: »

I have 3ac of silage to do, after that I havnt a clue

delaval wrote: »

'fail to plan, plan to fail'.

Bob I'll admit when I read your theory on the best grass is grown overnight etc I was intrigued and maybe it did have merit in some situations, but it seems to be falling apart more and more every day to be honest!

Anyways, on the whole "climate change" (lets call it that as nobody has a fecken clue if the world is warming or cooling or what, other than strange stuff does in fairness appear to be happening in global weather patterns), anyways the biggest problem in Ireland is how utterly dependent we are on the gulf stream, as we have seen, small shifts in it can throw the weather off track for a full season, like last summer, and this spring. Moving forward, having somewhat larger reserve of fodder supplies is a fairly prudent course of action, this short term could mean destocking to allow the farmers build back up fodder levels. Longer term it should be business as usual with an increased stocking rate possible for many farms who improve the ability of their land to grow grass/crops, but with greater degree of flexibility should any such repeats of this year come.

mf240

weather patterns have been changing for millions of years our pettie little lives are a mere fraction of time relative to the age of planet.

There were at least two ice ages and those sand banks that some of ye are lucky enough to have on yere farms were deposited by melting glaciers. The bogs were formed millions of years ago when valleys flooded and remained flooded thus rotting down the vegetation and trees and trapping the carbon to form peat.

Dinasours died out due to some major change to their envoiroment.

And now all of a sudden the whole thing is caused by man and we have carbon taxes turf cutting bans and nitrates directives.

bull fcuking sh1t.

maxxuumman

Havn't made up my mind either way on global warming/climate change, but I do recall watching "an inconvenient truth" when it came out. What it predicted to western europe is happening. It did forecast that the gulf stream would move south, and it did predict that the top half of europe would get the extremes we are getting and that from mid Spain down would get toasted.

keep going

throwing out fert like its for free and its working. already made bales,cutting 1 st cut in 2 weeks and hope to get a good second cut.have a couple bits of stale rented ground that are going under kale and turnips(about 10 ac) and have 3.5 acres of beet sat with 4 weeks so in all happy enough

aidanki

not the only one hoping for fine weather next week so, see a lot more plan on cutting too

delaval

I have 60% of annual N spread and will continue to load on for the main growing season another 46 units today.
We sold our bank of surplus silage that we had built. We have no hope of growing enough silage but I ordered fodder beet from our contractor today. It will be delivered weekly washed and chopped. Yhis is high enegy feed coming onto the farm.

bob charles

Timmaay wrote: »

Bob I'll admit when I read your theory on the best grass is grown overnight etc I was intrigued and maybe it did have merit in some situations, but it seems to be falling apart more and more every day to be honest!

Think you will find I dont have much mass in grass in the first place. Dont see it as having much of a place in high performance diets year round. teagasc are due to burn me at the stake anyday. I have lost allot of leased land this year and cant be replaced economically. I dont forsee any problem accessing feed next winter, the herd is just going to drop so much

delaval wrote: »

We have no hope of growing enough silage but I ordered fodder beet from our contractor today. It will be delivered weekly washed and chopped. Yhis is high enegy feed coming onto the farm.

forget fodder beet, buy sugar beet - actually scratch that use molasses, i dont understand why more farmers dont realise the benefits of the higher sugars in most diets. also there is no cheaper energy going to come onto farms next winter than maize.

grazeaway

bob charles wrote: »

Think you will find I dont have much mass in grass in the first place. Dont see it as having much of a place in high performance diets year round. teagasc are due to burn me at the stake anyday. I have lost allot of leased land this year and cant be replaced economically. I dont forsee any problem accessing feed next winter, the herd is just going to drop so much



forget fodder beet, buy sugar beet - actually scratch that use molasses, i dont understand why more farmers dont realise the benefits of the higher sugars in most diets. also there is no cheaper energy going to come onto farms next winter than maize.

Thats all fine in theroy Bob, but grass is the cheapest feed and it can be feed with out needing to use machines, and most importantanly its was cattle eat, they have evolved to pick, chew and recycle it over thousands of years. Adding other items to their diet is fine but they all need to be balanced out.

Growing maize, and beet or any other crop requires land suitable to doing so. If your in a tillage area then yes you can grow good quality feeds or buy locaily. its much different for lads out west where they have to pay €20 for a bale of straw to come from wexford or cork. there was always lots of maize round here but it has gone backwards over the last few years. A lot of teh crop was sown under plastic this year and a fair bit has been cleaned out by slugs and snails. Its a high input high out put feed.

Yes sugar beet is better than fodder beet but only if its washed and chopped. Fodder beet maybe be bigger and have a higher yield (30-35t/ac vs 20-25 t/ac) but it cant be feed straight to cattle. Fodder beet can be strip grazed or added whole to a diet feeder. The suger beet needs to bet chopped as its too hard on teh teeth. you need to balance out the sugars and there needs to be enough fibre in the diet too so sialage, hay or straw needs to be added. Also you need to watch how much they eat espically when they are 1st introduced to it, and dont feed any that have frost damage unless you want aborted calves all over the place.

Deval if you buying the beet washed and chopped by the tonne then try to see what the price of sugar beet would be.

delaval

grazeaway wrote: »

Thats all fine in theroy Bob, but grass is the cheapest feed and it can be feed with out needing to use machines, and most importantanly its was cattle eat, they have evolved to pick, chew and recycle it over thousands of years. Adding other items to their diet is fine but they all need to be balanced out.

Growing maize, and beet or any other crop requires land suitable to doing so. If your in a tillage area then yes you can grow good quality feeds or buy locaily. its much different for lads out west where they have to pay €20 for a bale of straw to come from wexford or cork. there was always lots of maize round here but it has gone backwards over the last few years. A lot of teh crop was sown under plastic this year and a fair bit has been cleaned out by slugs and snails. Its a high input high out put feed.

Yes sugar beet is better than fodder beet but only if its washed and chopped. Fodder beet maybe be bigger and have a higher yield (30-35t/ac vs 20-25 t/ac) but it cant be feed straight to cattle. Fodder beet can be strip grazed or added whole to a diet feeder. The suger beet needs to bet chopped as its too hard on teh teeth. you need to balance out the sugars and there needs to be enough fibre in the diet too so sialage, hay or straw needs to be added. Also you need to watch how much they eat espically when they are 1st introduced to it, and dont feed any that have frost damage unless you want aborted calves all over the place.

Deval if you buying the beet washed and chopped by the tonne then try to see what the price of sugar beet would be.

My post should have read Sugar beet!

delaval

I would not consider growing any crop other than grass on my farm and I an fortunately on the best of land. I wouldn't dream of taking out grass for any other crop. I have my own harvesting equipment (cows) so why would I?
I used to grow maize under plastic when we had area aid. Maize is a bit like hay good years and bad as far as growing is concerned. Maize needs to be 26% starch to be in any way viable and this cannot be done consistently in Ireland.

My reason for beet is that it's delivered and the 20% tare is left to muck up someone else's yard.

Molasses has a place as a feed supplement with milking cows but as a form of reliable energy and as a bulky feed that can be fed at 15-20kg fresh I don't think beet can be beaten.

grazeaway

delaval wrote: »

I would not consider growing any crop other than grass on my farm and I an fortunately on the best of land. I wouldn't dream of taking out grass for any other crop. I have my own harvesting equipment (cows) so why would I?
I used to grow maize under plastic when we had area aid. Maize is a bit like hay good years and bad as far as growing is concerned. Maize needs to be 26% starch to be in any way viable and this cannot be done consistently in Ireland.

My reason for beet is that it's delivered and the 20% tare is left to muck up someone else's yard.

Molasses has a place as a feed supplement with milking cows but as a form of reliable energy and as a bulky feed that can be fed at 15-20kg fresh I don't think beet can be beaten.

yeah have to agree. as i dont have a diet feeder and not milking cows i find strip grazing the beet works best for me. reduces the slurry bill and keeps the cows active during the winter, plus i use it as a rotation for reseeding the paddocks

stanflt

My maize will work out 20% cheaper than my silage this year even on rented ground. Silage yielded 7 tonne @ 30dm which works out at 47tonne fresh if I include a land charge or in actual €/tonne dm 156

My maize will work out at 133€ tonne/dm



I can never understand how lads boast about getting 10tonne first cuts when they never take into account dm


7tonne @ 30dm is the same amount of grass as 10.5tonne @ 20dm

freedominacup

stanflt wrote: »

My maize will work out 20% cheaper than my silage this year even on rented ground. Silage yielded 7 tonne @ 30dm which works out at 47tonne fresh if I include a land charge or in actual €/tonne dm 156

My maize will work out at 133€ tonne/dm



I can never understand how lads boast about getting 10tonne first cuts when they never take into account dm


7tonne @ 30dm is the same amount of grass as 10.5tonne @ 20dm

A neighbour measured fresh ungrazed Aug sown re-seeds of late heading varieties on the Tues after June bank holiday. Loaded with pig slurry and too much N, we were all caught with high nitrates the same year hence the late harvest, after a couple of hours rain overnight. It came in at north of 35 tonne fresh. We measured a similar sward a day later after good drying at between 20 and 25 tonnes. Maybe 5 tonne DM reasonable quality. Totally unusual set of circumstances never seen it since. Half that yield would be acceptable.

You're a brave man to be talking about "will" in relation to maize on the first of June Stan. Long way to go to harvest yet.

MidlandsM

whelan1 wrote: »

, deal with the situation then

bit late then ehhhh

delaval

stanflt wrote: »

My maize will work out 20% cheaper than my silage this year even on rented ground. Silage yielded 7 tonne @ 30dm which works out at 47tonne fresh if I include a land charge or in actual €/tonne dm 156

My maize will work out at 133€ tonne/dm



I can never understand how lads boast about getting 10tonne first cuts when they never take into account dm


7tonne @ 30dm is the same amount of grass as 10.5tonne @ 20dm

Agreed on Dm totally correct. Gavin's grown and fed maize and beet I don't think maize compares favourably with beet for consistency.

You are making big assumptions on your maize crop and it only bursting the plastic!!

Dampintheattic

delaval wrote: »

Agreed on Dm totally correct. Gavin's grown and fed maize and beet I don't think maize compares favourably with beet for consistency.

You are making big assumptions on your maize crop and it only bursting the plastic!!

Do you know anything about growing Sitka Spruce, or the likes.
Seems all recent notions I got about growing more grass, are turning out to be nothing more than notions. Place gone into muck this week. Heavy rain. Cold winds. Poached land. Waste of fukkkin time and money:o

newholland mad

delaval wrote: »

My post should have read Sugar beet!

Very very little SUGAR beet is sowed to sell anymore all the "sugar" beet is magnum fodder beet and if sowed at a close spacing i would challenge anyone to tell the difference. It yields 30% more and has close to the DM of SB and if sowed thick will still look like sugar beet.
The market does not give a 30% price premium for the reduced yield.If you think your buying SB you would need to see the boxes going into the seeder.

yellow50HX

newholland mad wrote: »

Very very little SUGAR beet is sowed to sell anymore all the "sugar" beet is magnum fodder beet and if sowed at a close spacing i would challenge anyone to tell the difference. It yields 30% more and has close to the DM of SB and if sowed thick will still look like sugar beet.
The market does not give a 30% price premium for the reduced yield.If you think your buying SB you would need to see the boxes going into the seeder.

its the colour on the outside that give it away. sugar beet tends to grey/white colour while fodder beet tends to be a more yellow colour. We set magnum by accident a few years ago (boxes were labelled wrong) looked just like the bolero we usually use but sit lower in the ground. the cows couldn't pull them from the ground so had to go along the rows with a pike and pull up the stubs of the root for them. Its fine for harvesting but not suitable for grazing.

manjou

What i intend doing is making as much forage as i can on the farm and get it tested so as i know exactly what amount of it i can feed to different cattle to keep them going.No point in feeding more than i need to and if quality is not as good i can suppliment where i need too .The sucklers are going to be scanned early and any not in calf are gone early. I am going to wean the cows early in sept calves will be 6 7 months old so will do them no harm and cows can be dosed and put back to grass to put on weight and this extra weight will help winter them.Also am going to spread nitrogen as late as possible and hope to get build up of grass over winter for next spring.And lastly will work out how much cattle i can afford to feed and will cull any extra. As Spock said the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few..

Markcheese

Are many of ye planning on filling the pit with whole crop, wheat or something else .... Can it just be bought in the field , or should specific varieties be used, I know a lad who tried wheat / red clover, (great for the pit , rats liked the bales a bit too much...) but it's a bit late to sow now...

Muckit

stanflt wrote: »

I can never understand how lads boast about getting 10tonne first cuts when they never take into account dm

7tonne @ 30dm is the same amount of grass as 10.5tonne @ 20dm

This is very interesting indeed Stan. Now can you/freedom or delaval or anyone else for that matter explain this a little bit more to a lay man I have a notion that it relates to wet grass having a higher water content...? Are you talking about measuring the dm of the grass standing before cutting or after it is wllted and going into the pit??

newholland mad

yellow50HX wrote: »

its the colour on the outside that give it away. sugar beet tends to grey/white colour while fodder beet tends to be a more yellow colour. We set magnum by accident a few years ago (boxes were labelled wrong) looked just like the bolero we usually use but sit lower in the ground. the cows couldn't pull them from the ground so had to go along the rows with a pike and pull up the stubs of the root for them. Its fine for harvesting but not suitable for grazing.

They were still labelled wrong so, magnum is identical to beet in the heap have grown both for the last 20yrs. If grown side by side the magnum has larger tops .Everyone around here selling sugar beet always sows magnum but like I said if its not sown close the bigger root will give the game away, having said that if lads want to pay 12 or 14 euro more they can have S beet

yellow50HX

newholland mad wrote: »

They were still labelled wrong so, magnum is identical to beet in the heap have grown both for the last 20yrs. If grown side by side the magnum has larger tops .Everyone around here selling sugar beet always sows magnum but like I said if its not sown close the bigger root will give the game away, having said that if lads want to pay 12 or 14 euro more they can have S beet

nope were defo magnum, had the the long stringy root. uncle sat it last year and pulled and few loads at a time. good feeding but needs to be pulled and chopped. i think cyros was along the same lines we sat it years ago when we used to pull and chop for the cattle indoors. cant rememeber any of the names of the varites that went to mallow. Tillage lad up teh road set both last year and you'd see the differecen in the colour. most years too you'd see the fodder beet was bigger but last year it all looked the same size. That said when its chopped it all looks the same.

bob charles

delaval wrote: »

I would not consider growing any crop other than grass on my farm and I an fortunately on the best of land. I wouldn't dream of taking out grass for any other crop. I have my own harvesting equipment (cows) so why would I?
I used to grow maize under plastic when we had area aid. Maize is a bit like hay good years and bad as far as growing is concerned. Maize needs to be 26% starch to be in any way viable and this cannot be done consistently in Ireland.

My reason for beet is that it's delivered and the 20% tare is left to muck up someone else's yard.

Molasses has a place as a feed supplement with milking cows but as a form of reliable energy and as a bulky feed that can be fed at 15-20kg fresh I don't think beet can be beaten.

If your looking for a bulky feed to fill up the rumen then yes you go with whole beet. If you are looking to pack as many calories as possible into each kg of grub consumed then I would say if buying both then molasses is a better product and priced just a shade over beet. If growing beet at first cost then is a good bit cheaper than molasses. Liquids have a huge part to play in high performance diets as 8 to 10% higher total intakes can be achieved.

bob charles

newholland mad wrote: »

They were still labelled wrong so, magnum is identical to beet in the heap have grown both for the last 20yrs. If grown side by side the magnum has larger tops .Everyone around here selling sugar beet always sows magnum but like I said if its not sown close the bigger root will give the game away, having said that if lads want to pay 12 or 14 euro more they can have S beet

magnum is the furtherest thing away from sugar beet there is nowadays, magnum is constantly around 18% DM is a real old fodder beet the latest high performing sugar beet last year came in at 25% DM which was Rosalinda. So the sugar beet could have yeilded 40% less beet per acre on fresh weight basis and still produced more energy per ac.

Energy and starch per acre is the all important figure in costing crops. Nothing will touch sugar beet constantly. Taking last years figures on tonnages beet was producing 40% more energy than maize but then if you take the starch figures maize regains some of the ground but not all of the ground.

When I said maize would be the cheapest feed coming onto farm next winter I was referring to dried maize meal. It will work out allot cheaper than forage maize on a starch and energy basis, There is no other straight product to make milkers or beef animals perform like straight maize meal. we have reduced the amount of maize silage in the diet year on year as it was just adding too much bulk the diet. Many will say animals will eat 2 - 2.5% of bodyweight irrespective of bulkyness
of the food offered. I consider this to be bull as a rumen also has only a certain volume available so each kgs has to pack as much punch as possible.

bob charles

stanflt wrote: »

My maize will work out 20% cheaper than my silage this year even on rented ground. Silage yielded 7 tonne @ 30dm which works out at 47tonne fresh if I include a land charge or in actual €/tonne dm 156

My maize will work out at 133€ tonne/dm



I can never understand how lads boast about getting 10tonne first cuts when they never take into account dm


7tonne @ 30dm is the same amount of grass as 10.5tonne @ 20dm

Jesus Stan take it easy:) - looks like you done a rework on your silage cost and they are getting close to what I said they were. the big difference with you and others on here is your harvesting costs are way lower so your DM cost per ton is allot longer than most joe soaps using a contractor

Re your maize silage price unless you guys are having a summer up where you are the figures are very optimistic. what sort of DM yield are you assuming and Is it before a land charge. I reckon mine will be closer to costing €150dm when all is included given an average growing year which I can see this year being any more than. considering maize meal costing €255 a DM ton the forage maize is working out expensive. Again I wouldnt feed animals without having a % in the diet as its just so good for the rumen.

Re the fresh tonnages of crops - willie waving, is a very important aspect of farming around here anyway. As an old boy once said to me - the hedges go out at planting time and come in at harvesting time