Close any first cut silage areas soon

If not already closed, first cut silage areas should be closed as soon as possible, even at the expense of extra concentrate feeding.

In terms of tonnes of digestible feed, a heavy leafy crop of first cut silage which was closed up in late March/early April costs only about half as much as light stemmy crops closed up in late April/May (Teagasc data).

It is very difficult to get a leafy digestible crop from late saved crops because the grass will naturally be developing stem and seed in June.