Silage additive helps to drive forage intakes

Utilising the farm's grass with a multi-cut system

Marcus runs an autumn block calving herd and milks 250 three-way cross Holstein, Norwegian Red, Fleckvieh cows in partnership with father and wife. The total size of the family farm is 520 acres, with 160 acres set aside for grazing during the spring and summer.

“We grow grass very well, so the aim is to utilise as much grass in our system as possible,” explains Marcus. “Cows will be turned out and rotationally grazed as early as mid-January and we also operate a multicut approach to silaging; kicking off our silaging season on 20^th April.

“We often suffer from a lack of grass growth in the early part of the season due to hot weather, but the aim is to take grass cuts every 35 days. It is really important that the grass is clamped within 24 hours of cutting and this will happen no matter what the conditions.”

Marucs works with ForFarmers Forage Specialist, Michelle Cross, to assess grass ley performance and they are currently reviewing the use of Ryegrass Plus Grasses in some of the farm’s leys to help cope with the stress of dry conditions. Together with ForFarmers account manager, Elliw Griffiths, Michelle regularly analyses the farm’s silage and Elliw then uses this data to tweak the cow’s diet to ensure nutritional consistency in the base ration.

“Timely fertiliser application also helps to stimulate grass regrowth and quality too. During silage harvests we have a fertiliser spinner out in the field, chasing our contractor’s forage harvester out of harvested leys and spreading fertiliser as soon as possible.”

Successful use of Ecosyl additive

Whilst producing plenty of good quality grass is important, Marcus knows that this is only half the picture and that turning this grass into high quality, highly palatable silage is key to fuelling animal performance. In order to help optimise silage performance, and following advice from Michelle, Marcus started using Ecosyl back in 2015 and he has been an additive convert ever since.

“Our contactors, Cillech Agri, have a lot of acres to harvest and when the weather is good, I know that they can’t be with all the farmers on their list, at the same time,” explains Marcus. “When grass needs cutting, I don’t want to be in the position of having to wait out poor weather and then risk having to jostle for my place in the contractor ‘que’ with other famers, when the weather improves. Using Ecosyl helps give me the confidence to go ahead and let the contactors cut our grass, even when the conditions aren’t perfect.

“We started using Ecosyl as a bit of an ‘insurance policy’ when ensiling grass but have come to regard the use of a silage additive as much more than this. The additive is a resource that helps us – irrespective of the harvesting conditions - to proactively improve the palatability of our grass silage and therefore supporting high forage intakes in our cows.”

You get what you pay for

Whilst there are a large range of additives available on the market, Marcus has been impressed with Ecosyl’s performance and its ease of use.

“During a period of low milk price back in 2017, we actually switched to a cheaper brand of additive but noticed a significant drop off in feed intakes as the palatability of silage decreased,” concludes Marcus. “As soon as we switched back to Ecosyl, intakes increased again. So, whilst it was a more expensive product it more than makes up for this through increased feed utilisation."

For more information

For more information on our range of additives, advice on clamp management or multi-cut please speak to your local ForFarmers Forage Specialist or send us an online enquiry here