This makes it useful for reducing starch-based concentrates and for animal performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHarvesting in this percentage DM range offers a sweet spot between starch content versus sugars and moisture for fermentation,” Smith explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“However, because the crop is drier, it becomes more difficult to keep cool and stable, making a dual-acting additive particularly important. Placing 2-3ft of freshly-cut consolidated grass on top before covering the clamp can also help to seal it and keep it cool.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo harvest in this percentage DM range, a wholecrop header is required. Above 45% DM, a grain cracker may also be needed to prevent intact grains passing through the cow, although if the crop is undersown this can increase the moisture enough to soften the grain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harvesting at 50-60% DM<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nHarvesting at 50-60% DM will increase starch levels further and increase \u201cscratch factor\u201d as the crop becomes more fibrous, making it useful for higher production animals, especially if other forages are low in fibre, according to Smith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cBecause the crop is now even drier, it becomes more difficult to consolidate, making an additive that protects against heating even more important.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
“Clamps should always be filled in layers no more than 10-15cm deep, but at this percentage DM this is critical. Again, consolidated fresh grass over the top is good practice, and a grain cracker on the harvester is essential,” he concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dairy farmers making wholecrop silage from winter or spring cereals should choose the crop\u2019s harvest date and percentage dry matter…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3479,"featured_media":1340443,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1936,10876,1515,10922],"tags":[1750,819,85,611,2991,92,2454,620,4787],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340408"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3479"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1340408"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1340507,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340408\/revisions\/1340507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1340443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1340408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1340408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1340408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}