By Padraig O'Kiely, Teagasc, Grange Beef Research Centre

Improving profitability on livestock farms requires an optimal balance between increasing the value of produce sold and reducing the total cost of production. On grassland farms, the high price of purchased concentrates has refocused attention on the opportunities provided by high quality silage to facilitate cost reduction. In fact, the value of silage is often underestimated within systems where the primary feedstuff for livestock is grazed grass because, besides supplying winter feed, a series of additional benefits accrue to the system from silage production.

Baled and precision-chop silage are the two main silage production systems in many countries, and each has its own attractions. Precision-chop silage is more common on farms where large areas of leafy grass are harvested in May and early June, and where housed cattle are to be fed in, for example, slatted-floor sheds. Baled silage is more prevalent on farms where a first harvest is taken later in June (or July on wet or late-grazed sites), where the area to harvest is not particularly large, and where there are no conventional silos. In addition, baled silage is widely used in mid-summer or autumn where paddocks have advanced too much for grazing or where light yields of silage have to be harvested. Thus, each system has its place and on many farms both types of silage are made but at different stages of the year.

Comparison: cost of baled vs precision-chop silages

Cost comparisons of baled and precision-chop silages are complicated by the difficulty of comparing like with like - as mentioned above, the two silages tend to be made in different circumstances. Where contractors charge per hectare for precision-chop silage and per bale for baled silage, this tends to favour the former for high-yielding crops and the latter for lighter-yielding crops, as shown in Table 1.  Both harvesting systems can make equally good silage, so it is really a matter of using each system in its appropriate circumstances.

The following are some guidelines where a farmer seeks to reduce the cost of baled silage:

Extending grass and winter forages grazing
Since silage is a more expensive feed than grazed grass, the quantity of silage required on farms can be reduced by extending the grass grazing season and, where feasible, by grazing winter forages (e.g. brassicas).

Harvest high grass dry matter (DM) yields per hectare
It is essential to produce a high yield of silage per hectare in order to reduce the cost of each tonne of silage DM. Table 2 shows that where management practices provide sequentially higher yields of grass (at a constant digestibility) that the cost of providing silage for cattle can be reduced markedly. However, increasing yields by delaying harvest date will also reduce the cost per tonne DM, but the reduced nutritive value of each tonne produced makes this latter strategy appropriate only for animals with modest performance targets.

Produce appropriate silage digestibility (DMD)
Cattle with low and high winter performance targets have requirements for silages of different net energy contents. Table 2 shows that where management practices provide sequentially higher digestibilities (at a constant yield) that the cost of providing digestible dry matter to cattle can be reduced. This is important where high rates of winter performance are required and while concentrate prices remain relatively high.

Impacts fo independently altering grass yield 

Reduce losses at harvesting, storage and feedout
No crop is ever ensiled and then consumed by cattle with 100% efficiency - losses can occur during

  • harvesting (spillages, leaching, heating)
  • storage (fermentation, effluent, heating/mould) and
  • feedout (heating, spillages)

These losses can range from as low as 12% to over 40% of the available grass DM and make a major impact on the cost of feeding cattle (Table 2). Clearly there is a major reward for a management system that severely limits these losses.

Restrict input costs throughout
There are costs involved in most aspects of silage-making, and there are opportunities to reduce these in some cases. For example, the number of bales/ha and thus the harvesting and storage cost/ha are reduced markedly by producing well wilted, very dense bales.

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