Pasture silage in New Zealand - targets and current practice

Abstract

Pasture silage is harvested from surplus spring pasture on many New Zealand dairy farms, for use as a supplementary feed in times of feed shortage. Targets for the quality of silage suitable for feeding to lactating dairy cows are presented, as recommended by a silage workshop held in Hamilton in 1994. National information from the Lincoln University Analytical Laboratory are presented that show that pasture silage made in the 1994J95 season was well preserved. However, most of that silage had a feed quality below the target set for lactating dairy cows. Averages for DM digestibility were 65.5-67.9%, estimated M/D was 9.3-9.6 MJ ME/kg DM, and crude protein was 14.6 15.1%. Silage-making practices were analysed, based on silage samples entered in the 1994195 Livestock Improvement Advisory silage competition. The key to making high quality pasture silage in the 1994/95 season was to harvest pasture by the first week in November. Nitrogen fertiliser may be used to produce early surplus pasture without restricting the feed supply to grazing cows. Further survey work is planned to confirm observations made, and expand on practical recommendations for making high quality pasture silage. Keywords: dairying, feed analysis, nitrogen fertiliser, pasture, silage, silage additives