Farmers urged to play it safe with silage making
Internationally recognised rural sciences research centre is urging farmers to be more flexible in their approach to forage as unpredictable weather conditions continue to play havoc with traditional farming methods.
Silage making has been devastated in many areas of the UK and Ireland in recent years, with severe silage shortages in 2006 due to an incredibly hot summer, only to be followed by similar issues in 2007 and 2008 thanks to unseasonal flooding.
"Farmers will always have to battle with the elements to some extent, but it is becoming apparent that climate change is having increasing effects on the farming community and, if predictions are correct, will continue to do so for some time," said Dr. Dave Davies, Silage Researcher and Agricultural Outreach Manager at the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS), Aberystwyth University, UK.
"As a result, farmers are going to have to make silage when the opportunity arises - provided there’s no residual fertilizer - and not just when they’ve always done it in the past," he continued. "The old adage, ’make hay whilst the sun shines’, can certainly be applied to silage making now!"
According to IBERS - which made its recommendations as part of a new market report from Dow into baled silage in the UK and Ireland – farmers are facing three key impacts when it comes to climate change challenges:
1. increasing demands on livestock producers to play a role in reducing carbon emissions;
2. more unpredictable weather affecting silage production and quality;
3. economic challenges due to increasing costs of fertilizer and cereal-based concentrate.
Farmers can exert some control over the situation, however – in Dr. Davies’s view, maximizing the use of freshly grazed and conserved forages within farming systems can help to capture the value of livestock products for the farmer’s benefit, rather than passing it to a feed or fertilizer company. There are also some basic guidelines that will lead to better results if followed.
"Avoiding dry matter losses can both improve silage quality and reduce carbon emissions, and excluding oxygen from the point of making silage to the point of feed is a key way to avoid these losses," explained Dr. Davies. "In my opinion, baled silage is has much to offer - with losses of just 8% compared to clamp silage losses, which are often as high as 25%."
IBERS also recommends wrapping silage bales with six layers of film, as this provides an optimum barrier to oxygen, reducing respiration losses and preventing mould and yeast growth. Wrapping should happen as soon as possible after baling - ideally within two hours - to prevent aerobic respiration. It is also important to handle and store bales carefully and cover them in netting so as to protect against damage from wildlife.
Maurice Jones, who runs a herd of over 1,000 cows in Montgomeryshire, UK, uses towers and clamps for his core forage provision, yet bales the remaining third, producing around 10,000 bales a year: "Baling allows me to act quickly if severe weather is on the way, as I can quickly get a small team out onto the fields to wrap before the rain breaks," he said. "Flexibility is going to be increasingly important when you need to respond to the changing weather patterns we’ve been experiencing in recent years – I haven’t seen anything like last summer’s flood for over thirty years."
Baled silage also can provide farmers with the opportunity to maximize utilization of grazed grass and to conserve any excess in qualities tailored to offer excellent nutritional requirements for different types of stock on farm.
"Progressive farmers are seeing baled silage as a modern grassland management tool that can not only help them deal with the vagaries of the weather but also result in more efficient land use," said Norbert Schulze, Silage Marketing Manager for Dow Europe GmbH. "Baling can help maximize utilization of grazing grass whilst producing high quality silage for buffer feed when grazing is limited, or for high-yielding dairy cows that need very high quality grass silage, for example."
"Rotational paddock grazing can also help maximize grass utilization by avoiding topping the over-supply when growth is rapid, and setting aside a paddock for baled silage production instead," he continued. "Not only grazed grass utilization can be maximized but at the same time high quality silage can be produced in convenient bale sized quantities for feeding when grazed grass supply is insufficient to meet the dairy cows’ intake requirements."
"It can also be used when a small number of high producing dairy cows are housed early and opening a large silage clamp is, from a silage clamp management perspective, a last resort," explained Mr. Schulze.
