Take stock of feed needs and think ahead

If 25 acres of silage are cut three times, this will be 750 tonnes of fresh weight silage

Some level of concentrate supplementation will be needed, depending on the stage of lactation or dry cow period, due to the cow’s requirements for protein and energy.

With the previous winter still in our sights, now is the perfect time to look ahead from a feeding perspective. 

To conduct a feed budget, measure your silage pits to work out the tonnes of silage left. If required, ask for advice from an advisor or nutritionist when calculating the tonnage, as this will depend on the dry matter of the crop. With the time to spread fertiliser for silage ground fast approaching, now more than ever, it is worth calculating how much tonnage you will require.