|
|
|
 | ||
|
Two significant developments are currently taking place in forage production. Continuous pressure on price is forcing many dairy farmers to reduce production costs, with the situation becoming so extreme that some have even suggested a slaughter programme in order to normalise the market situation. At the same time, an increasing number of farmers are switching to organic production in order to benefit from higher prices per product unit as demand for organic food remains high. Baling silage to preserve forage surpluses "Financially and operationally, the system only works when relatively little capital is involved in terms of harvesting and storage technology. Geographical conditions must suitable for year-round usability without damaging the ground, even for larger grazing animals. The bale silage process is ideally suited, since individual bales can be stored in racks in fields as added forage, which generates no additional costs", he explains. Storing bales on site reduces transport expenses. Additionally, the expense involved in constructing and maintaining large silo installations - including the follow-up costs for disposal of leakage water - are large investments that farmers, particularly on smaller farms, can ill afford. Although production of baled silage requires labour and machinery, many farmers use agricultural service providers meaning no long term capital investment is required. Legumes in organic farming Legumes are useful for assimilating natural nitrogen into crop rotations in organic farming and forage production. They are also useful for 'greener' fertilisation methods, as they contain large amounts of protein and enrich the ground with nitrogen - bacteria in their roots (known as rhizobia) encourage legumes to draw nitrogen from the air. In forage production, clovers in particular (e.g. red clover and lucernes) serve well as a foundation for mixed crops with grass, as Dr. Thaysen explains. "Clover grass silages should include a proportion of leaf material as it contains highly digestible nutrients, particularly the valuable raw protein," he says. "Baling silage is very advantageous as it helps avoid losses due to disintegrating leaf parts and the ideal withering proportion for clover grass silages of 35-45 per cent can be achieved in a much more flexible way." In practice, Dr. Thaysen claims, summer crop is often withered more than is desired for aerobically stable silage. If such material is ensiled in drive-in silos, unwanted instability can result from the greater fibre content and longer cutting lengths. However, professional baled silage containing sufficient film layers for tight oxygen insulation can avoid such undesired side effects. Research by the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) in Aberystwyth, UK, confirms the beneficial role clover can play, and suggests that significant savings can be generated by farmers using forage plants other than grass. Since legumes bind their own nitrogen, research shows that dairy farmers currently using 200 kg of nitrogen as fertiliser (per hectare and year), could drastically reduce that amount by integrating white and red clover into their grass and silage fields without losing forage. Furthermore, there are indications that adding legumes such as red clover to the silage mix can significantly increase the milk yield. IBERS research reviewed large-scale bale silages fed to dairy cattle and demonstrated that mixing grass and red clover at identical amounts of dry mass parts results in an increased milk yield of 3.7 kg per day (compared to feeding with pure grass silage). It all adds up, suggesting that the use of legumes in baled silage production can contribute significantly to cost savings, a welcome thought for hard-pressed dairy farmers. < Back to Autumn 2009 Newsletter |
Back to...
|
|