Farm Contractor & Large Scale Farmer
    Twitter LinkedIn
    • FREE Email Newsletters
    • About Us
    • Advertise
    • Subscribe
    • Contact Us
    Twitter LinkedIn
    Podcast
    Farm Contractor & Large Scale Farmer
    • News
      • Arable & Agronomy
      • Dealership News
      • Environmental Land Management Scheme/Policy
      • Event News
      • Health & Safety
      • Machinery
      • People
      • World News
    • Farm Machinery
      • Amenity & Maintenance
      • Cultivations
      • Drilling
      • Grassland Equipment
      • Harvesting
      • Muck & Slurry
      • Sprayers
      • Telehandlers
      • Tractors
      • Tractor of the Year
      • Tyres & Tracks
      • Whatever happened to?
    • Precision Farming
    • Markets & Policy
    • Profiles
      • National Arable and Grassland Awards
      • Company Profiles
      • Reader Profiles
    • Livestock
      • Beef
      • Dairy
      • Sheep
    • Magazines
      1. September 2025 issue
      2. August 2025 issue
      3. 2025 Drills and Seeds supplement
      4. July 2025 issue
      5. June 2025 issue
      6. Cereals event guide 2025
      7. May 2025 issue
      8. April 2025 issue
      9. March 2025 issue
      10. 2025 Tyre Developments supplement
      11. February 2025 issue
      12. National Arable and Grassland Awards supplement
      13. January 2025 issue
      14. December 2024 issue
      15. November 2024 issue
      16. October 2024 issue
      17. September 2024 issue
      18. August 2024 Issue
      19. 2024 Drills and Seeds supplement
      20. July 2024 Issue
      21. Cereals Supplement
      22. June 2024 Issue
      23. May 2024 Issue
      24. April 2024 Issue
      25. Tyres and Tracks Supplement
      26. March 2024 Issue
      27. National Arable & Grassland Award – Meet the Finalists
      28. February 2024 Issue
      29. January 2024 Issue
      30. December 2023
      31. Agritechnica Preview Supplement
      32. November 2023
      33. October 2023
      Featured

      September 2025 issue available now

      By Matthew TiltSeptember 1, 2025
      Recent

      September 2025 issue available now

      September 1, 2025

      August 2025 issue available now

      August 1, 2025

      2025 Drills and Seeds supplement available now

      August 1, 2025
    • Events
    • Podcast
    Farm Contractor & Large Scale Farmer
    Dairy

    New initiative launched to help dairy farmers boost milk from forage by 500 litres

    John SwireBy John SwireFebruary 6, 20196 Mins Read
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email

    Increasing milk produced from forage, and boosting business profitability as a result, is achievable on most UK dairy farms by setting realistic targets and focusing on improvements in key areas of grass silage making.

    This was the headline message from an industry forage briefing, where speakers from Germinal and Volac reported on the results of a major new survey that shows an overwhelming desire by dairy farmers to improve production from forage, yet herd costings continue to show stagnation in this critical benchmark.

    In a joint initiative to help dairy farmers, the companies launched their ‘Five for 500’ action plan – a focus on five key areas that can help deliver an extra 500 litres from forage.

    “Our survey of over 200 dairy farmers showed they are virtually unanimous in their quest for higher milk from forage, with 98% saying that performance in this area is either extremely important or very important to the future of their businesses,” said Germinal’s Helen Mathieu. “That makes absolute sense, because we know forage is the cheapest source of feed and herds with higher performance in this area are always highest ranked for profitability.

    “The frustrating part, as shown in our survey, is that less than half of dairy farmers actually know what their milk from forage figure is, and fewer still have set themselves a target, despite declaring their desire to improve.”

    Taking the survey results on board, Volac and Germinal are recommending a strategy of setting achievable targets and staying focused in their quest to improve.

    “There’s been little movement in overall milk from forage, certainly over the last ten years, so we’re recommending a fresh approach that we hope will help a good proportion of dairy farmers make real progress,” said Peter Smith of Volac.

    “For a good majority, grass silage is the mainstay of the forage ration, so we’re recommending a focus on specific areas within the grass silage production process, each of which has potential to deliver a significant uplift in milk from forage.

    “We saw in our survey that around two-thirds of dairy farmers are not setting themselves a milk from forage improvement target. But for the one-third that are, the vast majority are aiming for up to an additional 500 litres. To achieve that target, cows will require an extra 8 megajoules per day coming from silage. So our recommended plan focuses on five areas within the grass silage making process where simple actions can make that extra energy available – and therefore deliver that additional 500 litres.”

    Point number one is to plan a forage budget, highlighted Helen Mathieu. “Simple planning, based on the number of animals to be fed, target intakes and expected production per hectare will ensure the farm has enough silage of the right quality,” she said. “Planning of this nature, with contingency built in, could easily mean an additional 1kgDM/head of quality silage intake.

    “Secondly, it’s vital to assess the raw material in the field, which means having a clear understanding of the potential performance of each of the fields ear-marked for silage making. Having this knowledge will allow the best decision making, and if that means a ley of higher quality ends up in the pit destined for the milking cow ration – as opposed to a poorer quality ley being ensiled – then that could raise the ME in silage by enough to make that significant difference.

    “Thirdly, we’d always recommend renovating or replacing leys routinely, to maintain productivity and quality. There’s no question that the higher ME/ha possible from keeping the proportion of sown species in the leys high will easily translate into higher milk from forage.”

    For point four, Peter Smith said the focus is on reducing in-field losses – most notably by ensuring grass is cut for silage before it comes into ear and by achieving efficient wilting.

     

     

    “Each day after ear emergence, grass becomes less and less digestible, so its energy content for the cow declines. Similarly, the longer that grass is wilted, the greater the loss in its digestibility. The aim should be to wilt it as quickly as possible to 30% dry matter, but not much beyond that,” he said.

    “Finally, point five is to reduce ensiling losses. Using a quality additive has been proven to not only better preserve silage quantity but also quality – with analysis of 26 trials showing that for untreated silage with a digestibility of 65 D units, treating with Ecosyl gave an increase of four D units to the animal, which at a dry matter intake of 12kg/day, is the equivalent of an extra 8 megajoules of energy.

    “We’re also urging farmers to calculate properly how much weight is needed for effective clamp consolidation. It’s easy to under-estimate this, but grass at 30% dry matter coming into the clamp even at a normal 100 tonnes an hour requires 25 tonnes of machinery rolling it,” he added.

    Each of the points in the Five for 500 action plan can contribute to the extra 8 megajoules per cow per day. Volac and Germinal stress that the action plan is a menu as opposed to a prescriptive plan, recognising that not all will apply in many cases, but are in firm agreement that there will be few dairy farms that would not see gains from attention to detail in at least one of the highlighted areas.

     

    Five simple actions to deliver +500 litres from forage

    PLAN your grass silage budget –       How many cows / youngstock to feed?

    –       What are target intakes?

    –       Are you producing enough?

    ASSESS grass yield and quality in the field –       What percentage of sown species remain?

    –       Is soil nutrition / soil condition right?

    –       Are weed populations excessive?

    IMPROVE grass yield and quality in the field –       Which fields to improve?

    –       To renovate or fully reseed?

    –       Are you using top RGCL varieties in a balanced mixture?

    REDUCE in field losses –       Are you mowing grass at optimum stage?

    –       Are you mowing at the right time of day?

    –       Are you maximising conditions for wilting?

    REDUCE ensiling losses –       Do you fully avoid soil contamination?

    –       Is clamp compaction adequate?

    –       Are you applying a proven additive?

    Tweet
    Share
    Share
    Pin
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email
    Previous ArticleElectric tractor powered by cable
    Next Article Stop TMR diets heating to reduce waste
    John Swire

    Read Similar Stories

    September 2025 issue available now

    September 1, 2025

    Lely expands robotic milking range

    August 13, 2025

    August 2025 issue available now

    August 1, 2025
    Most Read Stories

    Pöttinger introduces new silage additive tank

    September 2, 2025

    Samson adds new entry-level TG slurry tanker

    September 2, 2025

    John Deere extends parts solutions

    September 2, 2025
    Farm Contractor & Large Scale Farmer

    The UK's leading agricultural machinery journal

    Twitter LinkedIn
    © 2024 MA Agriculture Ltd, a Mark Allen Group company

    Privacy Policy | Cookies Policy | Terms & Conditions

    • Farmers Weekly
    • AA Farmer
    • Poultry News
    • Pig World

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.