Grazing pasture is the most cost effective feed that you can use on farm, however seasonal conditions can affect the quality and amount of pasture that is readily available to your livestock which can limit production.
Many livestock production systems (be it dairy, beef or sheep), use pasture as their base but when pasture production declines they often feed supplements. By making silage, you take surplus forage from the spring and use it to fill these feed gaps during times of pasture deficit.
Using silage can be an excellent on-farm tool to increase production, reduce waste and improve your overall pasture quality. Silage allows you to take advantage of the pasture when it is at its optimum growth stage, especially in spring when there is excess feed that can be made into high quality product when making hay is impossible.
When thinking about conserving forage as silage there are some important considerations to take into account:
1. Is silage the most cost effective tool for my farm?
2. Do I have sufficient surplus pasture growth to produce silage?
3. How will silage usage change all other activities on the farm both good and bad – i.e.: rotational grazing, etc.
4. Are there any other implications on the profitability of my farming system by creating silage?
5. What climatic conditions are forecasted over the next 3-6 months and how will that affect my production systems?
There are a two options as to what type of silage you can produce;
a) Round bale silage
b) Pit silage
Round Bale Silage
Advantages and disadvantages of this system are:
Pit silage has advantages and disadvantages:
For more information please contact our Stephen Pasture Seeds or AusWest Seeds team.
1. Ag Guide: A practical Handbook; Pastures in a Farming System. NSW DPI, Tocal College, Tocal NSW, 2014
2. Feeding Pastures for Profit program; Phil Shannon, 1999 & 2016
3. Beef and Sheep BRP Manual 5, Making Grass Silage for Better Returns”; Better Returns Program, AHDB Beef and Lamb, Stoneleigh park, Kenilworth, Warwickshire, UK, 2015
4. “Winter cereals for silage”; 3030 Project; VIC DPI, DA & University of Melbourne, 2010
5. “Successful silage – Silage in a farming system, Chapter 1. B.M.Doonan, A.G.Kaiser, D.F. Stanley, I.F. Blackwood, J.W.Piltz, A.K.White; DPI Water and Environment Devonport, Tasmania; DPI Wagga Wagga, Ag Institute Wagga Wagga, NSW; DPI Cowra, Agricultural research and advisory station, Cowra NSW; DPI Tocal, Tocal Agricultural Centre, Tocal NSW