Turning out early in spring never more important

Setting up for early turnout will be the key to mitigating the effect of bad-quality silage in winter feeding, advised Siobhán Kavanagh of Teagasc at last week’s National Liquid Milk Conference.

Get silage analysed, she said; this will help predict silage intake potential, supplementation type and level, as well as the risk of heating or mould growth in silage.

Low digestibility silage with poor intake characteristics will mean additional meal feeding.