Consistency and fermentation quality the key
Date: 15 October 2009
When the farm location significantly restricts your options, you have to make the very best of what you have. This is precisely what Jacky Nullis and partner Steve Leveridge set out to do, helped by Biotal ruminant nutritionist Ian Smith.
The dairy unit at Red House Farm near Newark is surrounded by housing which makes expansion and redesign an impossibility. So instead, Jacky and Steve have focussed on developing a high yielding herd and the 150 cows are now averaging 10,400 litres at 4.0% butterfat and 3.2% protein.
The buildings are traditional with cows housed in a number of straw yards. All the silage clamps are made from straw bales lined with plastic sheets and until last year several of them did not have concrete floors, but this has not stopped Jacky and Steve making consistent high quality silage.
Every year they make three cuts of grass silage, around 85 acres of maize and a 550t clamp of wholecrop. This year the wholecrop is wheat but next year it will be triticale.
“The objective is to make well fermented, palatable silages,” explains Steve. “All the grass is short term leys and first cut is always taken early around 7th May, wilted for 24 hours and picked up quickly.
“We cut the wholecrop at around 40% dry matter with the entire crop harvested in one day. Maize will be cut in a day and a half in late September. We always grow early varieties.
“To help ensure consistent quality forage we always use an additive - Axphast Gold on the grass, Wholecrop Gold, and Solo Maize.”
The quest for consistency is carried over into feeding. Advised by Ian Smith, just one diet is fed comprising 29.5% grass silage, 25.5% maize silage, 18% wholecrop, 9% brewers’ grains and 17.5% of a blend with the balance being long fibre. Cows are grouped according to yield and the diet is topped up from out of parlour feeders.
“Steve is committed to diet consistency and personally mixes the diet 12 days out of every 14,” comments Ian. “His dedication and skill means the cows are presented with a consistent and effectively mixed diet, allowing them to make the most of the quality silages available.
“To ensure optimum rumen conditions and promote high dry matter intakes, particularly from forage, the blend always includes SC Yeast. Normally we have used SC Gold but a strategic change onto SC Platinum in response to a cell count blip has proven a flexible way to address this particular problem," Ian Smith observes.
The performance achieved by Jacky and Steve goes to prove that good cows, fed well and managed consistently can deliver the results.
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Decision time for maize
Date: 20 August 2009
New varieties, additive types and harvesting techniques make it possible to conserve maize in a variety of ways to best balance other feeds on the farm and potentially reduce purchased feed costs.
Maize provides high levels of energy and starch whether conserved as a forage or ‘concentrate’. The conservation method chosen will largely depend on the quantities of other forages available.
If grass and wholecrop stocks are low then conventionally harvested forage maize will be the most suitable option. Normally around 30%DM the silage provides good levels of digestible fibre and starch to balance grass silage and promote higher intakes.
If reasonable stocks of other silages are available then it might be worth considering Ground Ear Maize where the cob, spindle and grains are processed via a forage harvester. The resulting feed is normally 50-60%DM, provides high levels of starch and energy plus a small amount of digestible fibre.
If forage stocks are plentiful and no additional silage is required, then the best option will be crimped maize. Here the cobs are stripped from the stover and the grain is threshed via a combine harvester. The result is a ‘concentrate’ at around 60-70% DM, providing very high levels of starch and energy.
To help make the right decision, farmers should assess the quality and quantity of silages already on the farm and then decide on the best way to maximise the value of maize.
Whatever system is chosen, make sure to preserve the crop well using an effective additive to maximise feed value and minimise waste.
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New forage analysis will help get more from silage
Date: 20 August 2009
Nick Berni, Biotal Forage Products Manager explains how our new style forage analysis will make a big difference to how cows perform this winter.
A detailed silage analysis is the foundation of all dairy cow rations. Without it you can’t tell what is in the clamp, and its no good relying on average figures as they will never be a reflection of an individual clamp. But how well are silage analyses understood and do they really explain how a silage will perform? Our research told us farmers would like a more straight forward analysis while nutritionists wanted to know more about what the silage will do in the rumen.
Our new analysis method, a joint development between Biotal Ltd and Bioparametrics Ltd tackles both these problems. It combines new values on energy and protein digestion with an easy to use visual report which more clearly explains how the forage will be used in the rumen.
Traditional forage analyses, while providing details on the basic nutritive value of silage such as ME, protein content and dry matter, provide little if any data on likely rumen fermentation and rumen health. In modern high output dairy systems, often based on a mix of forages it is essential to understand how forages will behave during digestion if accurate and effective total diets are to be formulated.
The analysis distinguishes between rapid and slow fermenting energy and protein sources within the rumen to predict the supply of nutrients required for milk production. In addition the new report gives details on the rate at which carbohydrates and proteins are broken down.
To maintain good rumen health and maximise production the cow needs a good balance of slow and quick energy and protein sources and for the first time farmers and their advisors have this data available for forages. The new analysis shows the relative proportions of the different energy and protein types, predicts the supply of energy and protein to the cow and can help identify any potential shortages which can then be balanced through targeted supplementary feed.
The report also makes an assessment of the amount of active fibre supplied by the forage after chewing. Active fibre is particles longer than 3.18mm. These are important for the formation of the rumen raft and subsequent passage of feed through the rumen. This raft also helps maintain rumen pH by stimulating cudding and saliva production.
To make the report simple to use, the levels of all traditional and new analysis parameters are reported as a colour coded dial with red showing an undesirable level and green the desired level.
This new analysis is a big step forward in the assessment and utilisation of forages. The new data will allow farmers and their advisors to really understand how the silage will perform while the simple graphical presentation makes it easy to draw the correct conclusions.
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New maize varieties for 2010 season
Date: 20 August 2009
Two new forage maize varieties from Syngenta Seeds have gone straight in at the top of the 2010 NIAB Descriptive List with dry matter yields of 20.1 t/ha.
NK Smile is a maturity class MC 5 variety which combines great feed quality with exceptional dry matter yield. NK Jasmic is an earliermaturing variety (MC 6) that can be grown in a wider range of locations, allowing more growers to benefit from the highest yielding varieties that the 2010 Descriptive List has to offer.
When combined with a dry matter yield of 20.1 t/ha, NK Smile’s 32.3% starch content and ME score of 11.1 MJ/kg dry matter equate to an outstanding starch and ME yield of 6.48 t/ha and 224,000 MJ/ha
respectively.
Slightly earlier NK Jasmic is also the highest yielding variety at less favourable sites at 19.4 t/ha, 0.5 t/ha more dry matter yield than the second highest MC 6 variety.
An exceptional ME yield of 223,000 MJ/ha suggests the variety could also be ideal for biogas production as work in Europe indicates a correlation between energy content and methane yield.
“With lots of interest in biogas plants, NK Jasmic could have great characteristics for growers looking to use less favourable land for renewable energy production. UK biogas plant owners are usually farmers growing their own maize. Electricity production is related to methane production so, with opportunities for an additional income source through the sale of surplus electricity to the National Grid, farmer operators should consider optimising methane yield rather than plant matter volume,”
explains Nigel Padbury, technical, sales and marketing manager for NK, the Syngenta Seeds brand for maize and oilseeds in the UK.
Syngenta Seeds is leading the way with the highest yielding varieties: the result of a breeding programme focussed on delivering forage maize varieties specifically for northwest Europe. Nigel is delighted that they’ve achieved the top yielding variety on the Descriptive List for three years in a row.
“The strength of our forage maize portfolio can also be seen in the fact that four out of the top five varieties on the 2010 Descriptive List are from Syngenta Seeds.”
For growers looking for earliness Syngenta Seeds’ new high yielding MC 7 variety Nigella has been placed on the 2010 Descriptive List.
With an impressive dry matter yield of 19.2 t/ha the variety has tremendous all-round characteristics delivering excellent feed quality coupled with outstanding agronomic strengths.
“Nigella has a good balance of starch at 32% and a ME score of 10.9 MJ/kg dry matter, a very good early vigour score of 7.7 and the best harvest standing power score of 8.4,” says Nigel.
Syngenta Seeds will be launching all three varieties at the Dairy Event and Livestock Show on the 16th and 17th September. Anyone seeking more information about these varieties should visit the Syngenta Seeds stand (CS1-509), phone 01223 883525 or go online to www.nk.com/uk
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Live yeast and organic selenium deliver added benefits
Date: 20 August 2009
Scientists from all over the world attended JAM, a scientific conference of the American Dairy Science Association (ADSA), Canadian Society of Animal Science (CSAS) and the American Society of Animal Science (ASAS) held in Montreal in July. Biotal’s parent company Lallemand were JAM 2009 Platinum Sponsors.
Lallemand presented a paper examining the effect of the live yeast strain CNCM I-1077 in combination with organic selenium, as used in Biotal SC Gold and Biotal SC Platinum.
Live yeast is known to have a positive effect on milk production while organic selenium is known to stimulate immunity and reduce somatic cell count. Few studies have looked at the combination effect of both.
The University trial involved 60 Holstein Friesian cows producing 9000 litres.
Results show cows fed the combination of live yeast and organic selenium produced significantly more milk (+3.04kg/d) and had lower Somatic Cell Count (SCC -50,000 cells/ml) than unsupplemented cows.
Milk protein was significantly higher in the treatment group and Rumen Fill Score (RFS) and Body Condition Score (BCS) were also significantly better (+0.35 and 0.18;) in the treated cows. Even greater improvements were seen in cows in the first 100 days in milk (+0.61 and +0.25).
It was concluded there is strong evidence of better metabolic health in cows supplemented with live yeast and organic selenium.
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