Second cut silage ground has been harvested earlier than normal this year on the Tullamore Farm, and while quantity is back, even considering the earlier harvesting date, farm manager Shaun Diver is still happy to have the silage banked in good conditions.

With the second cut pit now settled, both it and the first cut pits were measured and assessed for tonnes of dry matter.

The two pits combined have 1,070 tonnes of DM between them, with 90 bales of silage also stored in the yard, equating to 21.6 tonnes of dry matter.

Growth behind

Very little surplus grass was baled this year, with growth behind in general across the grazing block. Current tonnage grown to date stands at 6.2t DM/ha, which is 1.3t lower than for the same period last year.

However, this figure has been peeled back from a difference of 1.6t between June ’24 and June ’23.

Using the Farmers Journal fodder calculator that can be accessed here we can calculate the requirement for the farm over the winter.

Housing 85 suckler cows (empty cows finished on farm), 20 in-calf heifers and 85 weanlings for a five-month winter will require 869t DM for a five-month winter period.

Adding the 250 ewes to the requirement (based off three months feeding) will up the requirement to 920 tonnes DM.

The above figures include an average of 2kg concentrates fed to all weanlings across the five months and an average feed of 250g/day for the ewes.

20% buffer

If we were to include a 20% buffer in our requirement, then the farm would need 1,104 tonnes DM, leaving the farm looking short should an extended housing period be needed.

However, several factors have to be taken in to consideration. Firstly, any dry cows from the batch of 85 that are housed will be finished on concentrates before the five-month period, with lighter bull weanling (10-15) likely sold live similar to this year, both of which will reduce the feed requirement.

The combi crop of peas, oats and barley that was on display at the open day is also to be harvested in the next week or so, and at 1.6ha, we would expect a yield of 12.8t DM (8t DM/ha) within the paddock brings our total forage within the yard at exactly 1,104.4t DM, bang on target even if we were to hold all our cows and bull weanlings.