Feed-out losses of whole-crop cereal silage

Abstract

The utilisation of whole-crop cereal silage, when fed on pasture, is an unknown factor when assessing the economics of whole-crop cereal silage in dairy farming systems. This study aimed to document the utilisation of whole-crop cereal silage and compare it to the utilisation of pasture silage fed under the same conditions. Data was collected from nine whole-crop cereal and two pasture silage feeding events during the autumn and spring of 2004. The concentration of silage fed in spring (3.04 kg (dry matter) DM/m) was lower (P<0.001) than that fed in autumn (4.59 kg DM/m). Residual silage left after feeding (kg/m fed) was not significantly affected by season or silage type. When expressed as a percentage of that fed, utilisation was lower for whole-crop cereal silage (80.6%) than for pasture silage (90.4%; P<0.032). However, when silage utilisation (g/kg DM fed) and the amount fed (kg DM) were compared, the utilisation of the silage was positively related to the amount fed (r2 = 0.44; P<0.001) with utilisation of over 90% being achieved when more than 4 kg DM/m was fed (measured in 38% of the feeding events). Keywords: dairy cows, pasture, silage, utilisation, whole-crop cereal