Optimizing Silage Success for Darren Callan
The winner of a national silage competition says the inoculant Optimize has helped him produce high quality, stable silage from young leafy grass.
Darren Callan, winner of the Federation of Welsh Grassland Societies’ All-Wales Silage Competition, was presented last week at the Royal Welsh Show in Builth Wells and said “making consistently good silage is essential for maintaining high yields and Optimize from Greenlands Nutrition balances the pH and acidity levels, leading to improved appetite for forage.”
“When you make silage from young leafy grass it can become very acidic which causes problems with the cow’s digestive system,” says Darren, who manages a herd of 300 dairy cows in Pembrokeshire. “Since we have used Optimize we have seen improved dry matter intakes on our TMR system.”
Optimize, he says, stabilised the pH in the silage without creating too much lactic acid.
His winning silage had a DM of 33%, ME of 11.7, crude protein of 20% and ammonia nitrogen level of 6.9.
The winning entry was said to be an ‘outstanding example of efficiency in forage and livestock management in a large scale, high output dairy herd’. Darren who manages 425 acres at Corston Farm, near Pembroke, for Frederick Hiam Ltd applies Optimize at a rate of two litres per tonne to his first cut silage.
The silage has an intake potential of 118 and, together with 70 acres of maize silage, is the foundation for annual milk sales of 9,300 litres per cow - of which 4,270 litres are produced from forage.
“With our system we are on a knife edge all the time. The silage is like rocket fuel for the cows which we balance by adding other sources of fibre,” says Darren.
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