Tama Assist The Real Cost of Poorly Baled Hay and Silage
Even when feed looks and smells fine, that doesn’t necessarily mean feed quality provides the best nutrition for your herd. In this blog, we run through how poor hay or silage quality impacts livestock health and production. And how good baling products can help.
Many studies show the impact of low-quality feed on weight gain and production. So paying a little more attention to your feed quality can yield big results.
Silage that hasn’t fermented properly, or that was harvested too late, can have significantly lower nutritional value than silage that was optimally handled. Lorna MacPherson, a dairy expert with SAC Consulting, points out that a change of 1% in protein can save 0.4 kg of supplemental feed (rapeseed meal), for the same milk production.
Similarly, the AHDB notes that fibre, energy content, and mineral levels are all affected by how well your silage is fermented and preserved. The better the base values of these, the less you’ll spend on supplementary feeds. This makes it worthwhile to choose good baling and silage wrap products to ensure proper nutrient preservation.
When silage is baled and fermented quickly, it produces a more palatable feed as it is protected from heat degradation and water damage by proper baling techniques. The more palatable your hay or silage is, the more your animals eat. It means dairy cows are producing less milk, and liveweight gains are lower in beef cattle.
Digestibility is equally important to ensure that livestock gets the optimum nutrition. For example, silage cut just a week earlier can improve digestibility (D-value) by 3.5%, according to MacPherson.
The big advantage of paying close attention to silage and hay quality isn’t just that your animals are healthier. There’s proven evidence of the effects on yields and profits. Data from Teagasc (the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority) shows that well-preserved, highly digestible silage correlates directly to weight and milk production gains.
In beef cattle:
- High-quality silage – 75% dry matter digestibility (DMD) – can increase liveweight gain to 0.83 kg/day, compared to 0.66 kg/day for 70% DMD forage. What a difference 5% makes!
In dairy cows:
- A DMD of 79% meant cows produced nearly 33 litres per day (with supplementation). Meanwhile, cows fed 75% DMD forage needed an extra 4kg/meal/cow/day to match the production of cows fed higher-quality silage.
The same applies to hay quality, with better quality feed having a proven effect on dairy cow performance.
These numbers show, that when baling silage or hay, it’s essential to lock the maximum nutrition. While harvest timing and weather play a role, using top-quality baling products to ensure optimal feed quality is vital.
TAMA’s range of silage wraps and baling twines is designed for better UV and weather protection, puncture resistance for proper fermentation, and stable bale shape to guarantee our farmers get the most from their hay and silage bales.
Ask TAMA’s experts how our baling products support livestock health and production.
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