Tailoring feeding strategy to silage quality

Improved fertility

Autumn-block calving works best for their herd and set up. They switched from all-year-round calving three years ago. “Because we didn’t have anywhere to house the high-yielding cows that were fresh during the winter months,” explains Tudur. “Now all cows are calved inside and fed the same ration, and that works better for us. We’ve also seen fertility improve now they are housed.”

The unit’s 57 hectares is predominantly grass, and between four and six hectares of spring barley is also grown each year. “Crimped barley is fed to the herd as part of their TMR through the winter, and we use the straw to bed calves,” says Tudur.

Herd average yield is 9,100 litres, at 4.3% butterfat and 3.2% protein, with a somatic cell count of 113,000 cells/ml. Cows are milked through an eight-point swing-over parlour. The herd is turned out to graze from late March through to mid-October, depending on the weather. 

“From late August onwards we also feed big bales of grass silage in the yard when cows come for milking.” Part of the Parry family’s expansion plan included using sexed semen on a proportion of the herd three years ago, to produce more heifer replacements. They currently have 48 followers on their unit. Sexed semen is now used on all heifers and cows. “The first 22 heifers produced from sexed semen are due to be served this year,” says Tudur.

Back grazing

Also key to expansion plans was to maximise the use of grass. So, in 2020, Tudur experimented with ‘back grazing’ for the first time. This involves moving cows onto fresh grass, twice a day, and moving the fence up behind them once a day to preserve the new growth. Tudur was then able to cut this for silage. All silage made as the unit is baled.

“We want to produce as much grass as possible, and after the cows had finished grazing that field the amount of grass behind them was unbelievable. It was only a few hectares, and a few extra bales, but it will make a difference.” 

This year he’s continued with back grazing, and is keen to see the impact it will have on the dairy business’ bottom line. “We have had to invest in a few extra water troughs to do this, but it wasn’t a big outlay,” he says. Tudur’s approach became more pertinent when he needed to make decisions about reseeding a field, which grew spring barley in 2019 and 2020. The grass ley in this particular five-hectare field was severely hit by drought in 2018. 

“It’s quite a rocky field, with thin soils in places, and the grass was badly burned that year, so we didn’t get much silage from it,” says Tudur. “As well as the less-than-perfect soils, it also has a slope in the middle section. And the lower part of the field is shaded.”

So he took advice on the best mixture to use to reseed the field, and ForFarmers’ forage expert Michelle Cross recommended Topgrass Extreme. This mix includes several ‘Plus’ grasses and was chosen for its ability to tolerate drought and high temperatures, and produce high protein and high-energy forage during the dry summer months. 

After barley the field was sprayed before being disced twice and then harrowed. Grass seed was then broadcast using a harrow with a seed box. “We have direct drilled grass leys in the past, but had some problems with leatherjackets,” says Tudur. “The grass ley established well, emerging and showing healthy growth within three weeks. It was rolled in early spring and 300kg/ha of a 20:10:10 fertiliser was applied, and by March it was looking great.”