Silage- Evaluating quality for your Dairy

Ensiling forages is a great way to have a forage ration year round. Not only that, you can have a consistent quality for one silo or pit and that becomes really easy to balance the complimenting ration to a consistent forage. Corn silage is one of the most prevalent silage used.
But it is very important to check the quality of silage before feeding that to your cows. These are the parameters you need to evaluate silage for:

DRY MATTER- This is a must. A good quality corn silage shall be between 30-40 % dry matter, depending upon how wet or dry the crop was harvested. Anything outside that range may not be fit or feeding, may not have fermented right in the silo. Apart from that it is recommended to test the silage for dry matter every 7-10 days. The diet or concentrate might have to be changed depending upon that. The standard method is oven drying but it can be checked on farm in a microwave and that is fairly valid.

PHYSICAL FORM- That includes the chop length and kernel processing. PENN STATE SHAKER BOX is the best tool for it. You can use standard size sieve boxes if it is not available in your country. This will give you a fair idea of physically effective fiber in diet which is very important for cattle.
Apart from that bucket test to see Kernel processing is a very good tool to determine Kernel processing which may impact available starch to a large extent. If you cows are excreting whole kernels in Dung that is energy down the drain.

FERMENTATION ANALYSIS- Quality of fermentation can be assessed by the pH first of all. A pH in range of 4 is good. Anything above 4.5 is a not well fermented silage and your herd may have performance and health issues. If you can get the organic acids analysis done, Lactic Acid- 5-10%, Butyric Acid should be not more than 0.5%, otherwise there is Clostridial fermentation and feeding such silage is not recommended. You may have serious fresh cow issues. Lactic acid should be more than 70 percent of all acids, and the lactic-to-acetic ratio should be more than 3. If there is more than 3% ethanol, you might have aerobic stability issues on storage.

Apart from that you can get NDF, ADF and lignin tested for your nutritionist to have an idea of the digestibility.
For details on microwave testing for DM, Penn state shaker box and Bucket method testing, You can contact me.

Additives and Supplements- Investment or Expense

Additives and Supplements- Investment or Expense

If the milk prices are average/low and the feed prices are high, the first thing to go out of Rations are the additives or the supplements. I have long been an advocate of additives in Ration if can be taken out, should not have been added in the first place. Of course, the cost of milk production is important but animal health and longevity must not be compromised. One thing is to be remembered always, don't ever ever try to lose milk or cut down the production, two reasons, whatever you are getting is after the animal's body maintenance expenses and the more you get, the cheaper it is. Second, Lost milk never gets back. You might have to wait for the next lactation and who knows even you attain the peak there or not.

 So here is a list of additives that are highly recommended in Rations and then there are which could be used as well. But first of all it is important to have the cows grouped based upon stage and level of production to decide who gets what.

1. Far Off dry cows: Monensin, Organic Trace Minerals, Vitamins, Silage inoculants, Anionic Products(Can be, depends on diet and ongoing research)
2. Close up Dry cows: Monensin, Organic Trace Minerals, Vitamins A, D3 and E, Silage inoculants, Can be used- Some B Vitamins(folic and B12), Choline, Anionic products depending upon diet DCAD.
3. Fresh Cows: Rumen Buffers, Monensin, Yeast products, Organic Trace Minerals, Vitamins, Rumen protected Niacin, Choline, biotin, Silage inoculants. Can be used- Glucogenic precursors like Calcium Propionate, Propylene Glycol etc.
4. High Producers/Mid lactation: Rumen Buffers, Monensin, Yeast products, Organic Trace Minerals, Vitamins and Silage inoculants
5. Late Lactation/Low Producers: Monensin and silage inoculants

For selecting a product, no 1 priority should be the research and proven efficacy of the product.

Second you should know your return on Investment. Just spending can be an expense not an investment.

The most mportant thing while using the additives or supplemets is using the right doses. Underdosing may save you money on paper but shall be costing you money in reality. For example an underdose of Rumen buffer like Sodium bicarbonate is of no use as lower doses than 0.75%  of total diet dry matter shall not have a beneficial effect at all.

There are many more products available in the market, but the research and return on investment should be your criteria for selecting those.