Silage this year - does the early bird always get the worm?

Muckit

This year growth was very slow to get going. Having cut silage at start of June, growth only got going the week after. Having the chat with a relation this evening and he reckons that if I had delayed cutting first cut for a week, that I'd nearly have enough silage and wouldn't have needed a second cut and so needed to spend less spend on fertiliser.

Look, you have to listen to thunder. But perhaps he had a point

Figerty

Manured late, due to ground conditions. Baled in early July and the crop was good. People who manure and cut mid june were well back on return in Clare.
Other years I'd be cursing not having it ready for June.
I don't do second crop; ground not good enough to give a worthwhile return.

bbam

If, If, if
All one can do is make the best decision on the day... looking back and second guessing what you did/didn't do would drive you mad...

My dad had a saying... "its hard to move forward if your always looking backwards" He wasn't particularly forward looking or progressive.. But its a good enough saying.

bob charles

You grew more grass I bet full stop, if you delayed cutting you aftergrass would have taken a week longer to recover as well as the delayed week. Just agree with him

freedominacup

Muckit wrote: »

This year growth was very slow to get going. Having cut silage at start of June, growth only got going the week after. Having the chat with a relation this evening and he reckons that if I had delayed cutting first cut for a week, that I'd nearly have enough silage and wouldn't have needed a second cut and so needed to spend less spend on fertiliser.

Look, you have to listen to thunder. But perhaps he had a point

Just tell him he has no more energy in the pit than you have and straw is a lot cheaper than meal. See what he says to that.

delaval

Tell him you paid by the bale, so maybe he sjould take it up with your contractor

yellow50HX

if's, buts and maybe's.....

as my dad says "if your aunt had balls she'd be your uncle".

with very slow growth in spring holding the silage for another week might have had an impact on your grazing ground. remember how tight the grass got at the end of the dry spell. i know of lads that ended up feeding silage to cows only a couple of weeks after cutting it. letting the silage thicken up makes sense as long as you can wait another while to bring the grass back into rotoation. we are doing a second cut this year on more acres then the 1st cut as we had to open up silage ground in may and june. its on new grass so will still be able to to get a bit of grazing off it this authunm

9935452

Muckit wrote: »

This year growth was very slow to get going. Having cut silage at start of June, growth only got going the week after. Having the chat with a relation this evening and he reckons that if I had delayed cutting first cut for a week, that I'd nearly have enough silage and wouldn't have needed a second cut and so needed to spend less spend on fertiliser.

Look, you have to listen to thunder. But perhaps he had a point

A lot of people have forgotten how bad the spring was, cattle still in an May and no fodder left.
At the time around us people cut when the weather came dry for a few days, the crops were light but as they saw it if the weather turned like last summer again at least they had something to feed the cattle and keep them going .
Another factor is the quality of the silage . last year a lot of the silage that was made the grass was overgrown and the quality was poor. Cattle were weak and shook after the winter. At least you have good quality silage and were able to plan around it for a second cut.

freedominacup

To sum up Muckit I think the sentiments here could best be expressed by you telling him to blow it out his ar$e:D:D.

Dampintheattic

If the weather had broken a day after you cut in June, and stayed broken as it did last year, your relation, would probably say, "you were fierce lucky", to get the silage when you did.

Timmaay

I can't find a link to the figures off hand, but the teagasc adviser showed us an example of one big late cut (end of june) against two smaller cuts, for a typical 80cow herd, and there was a 4grand saving overall going with the two cuts, of course the contractor/harvesting costs are cheaper with one cut than 2 cuts, but you lose well more than that saving with extra nuts needed to buffer feed alongside the poor dmd of that late cut silage to maintain their diet.

And I'm fairly sure that figure excluded the better regrowth etc from cutting sooner also.