Hay & Silage 2019

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www.age.co.nz Thursday, October 10, 2019

HAY & SILAGE

Book your contractor now With the hay and silage making season fast approaching, now is the time to book your contractor to avoid disappointment or delays in getting your job done.

Hay and silage contractors will be under pressure in the next few months.

Keep in touch through the whole process and be clear with the contractor as to what you want.

Know what their requirements are and do

everything you can to make their job as easy as possible.

Don’t be impatient as contractors will be working hard to make sure everyone’s jobs are done as soon as possible and to everyone’s satisfaction.

AGRICULTURAL CONTRACTOR WE SEE YOU THROUGH FROM START TO FINISH

• Direct Drilling • Minimum To Full Tillage Cultivation • Maize Planting & Side Dressing • Pasture & Crop Spraying • Silage Grass, Cereal & Maize • Baleage & Hay • Grain & Seed Harvesting • Grain Drying & Handling • Cartage • Supplementary Feed Trading

For a professional result, call the experienced team at Colton Bros. Ltd 61 Georges Rd, RD3, Martinborough P: 06 306 9168 or M: Rob Gawith 027 454 6982 | Rob Carter 027 449 8023 E: rob.coltbros@gmail.com

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Thursday, October 10, 2019 Wairarapa Times-Age

Making imported staff feel at home Nearly 150 mostly Irish and English operators have now mostly arrived for the springautumn season, to be shared by 47 RCNZ members under the current Approval in Principle regime – although this is set for change with recent Immigration NZ announcements.

These imports are in hot demand with their skills to drive machinery; some may be working in the Wairarapa right now on haymaking and silage, so we sought some advice on how best to look after them.

HAY & SILAGE

Richard Woodhead, a Wanaka-based board member of Rural Contractors NZ, had two Irish lads and one English with him last season and all were talking of returning.

One Irish lad has returned five years in a row.

Richard says you’ve got to look after them.

A lot of those who come to New Zealand for seasonal work driving machinery are really young.

Some of them are 19 or 20 years old and have never left home before.

This is not to say they can’t do the job.

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He reckons they make some of our young Kiwi operators look amateurish.

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An evening meal is provided at the Woodhead’s home that they all share including the Kiwis who work for them and live locally.

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“But you have to look after them and keep an eye out for how they are faring. They can get horribly homesick. ‘’

“One good meal a day goes a long way to making our overseas lads feel at home. Frankly, if you don’t feed them they’ll end up going to town and eating rubbish. We really treat

them like part of the family for the weeks and months they are with us.

They are accommodated in a cottage on Richard and his wife Lynne’s Wanaka property that used to be their own home.

They have their own bedrooms.

“Sorry but the days where young fellas will bunk in two and four at a time for months on end are over.

“Most won’t tolerate that. They expect some privacy along with home comforts. Shabby, cold shearers’ huts are not going to cut it.”

The Woodheads don’t have an Internet connection in the cottage but the lads use their phones or come into the house and Skype home or call their girlfriends.

“Of course, they use their phones to trade notes on what their experiences are. I’m aware that some contractors and farmers can lose overseas staff during a season. I don’t condone that but we’ve never had anyone jumping ship here.

“I think in part at least that comes down to people working here feeling truly appreciated. ‘’ STORY CREDIT: RURAL CONTRACTORS NEW ZEALAND

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www.age.co.nz Thursday, October 10, 2019

Early summer pasture silage success With a hand on the tiller Achieving silage success means carefully managing pasture growth, residuals, storage and feeding out. DairyNZ suggests a focus on pasture quality, not quantity, is the key. DairyNZ farm performance developer Maitland Manning explains.

Managing surplus pasture growth in early summer is important in achieving ongoing pasture performance.

In November/December, reproductive tillers appear, elongating into less easilydigested stems and seed heads, dropping pasture quality.

Leaving high residuals in early summer won’t help fill a feed deficit later, as there is reduced pasture growth and quality in those later months.

Silage is one way to use up a true surplus and ensure you

continue to hit residuals in preparation for summer.

Silage quality Lighter crops, harvested earlier, produce better silage.

Our research shows closing a silage area two to four weeks after balance date significantly drops its pasture quality, as seed heads emerge within three weeks. So harvest with an eye on quality pasture not quantity.

A post-grazing residual close to 1500 kilograms of dry matter per hectare (kg DM/ ha) helps to maximise silage quality. Our trials showed that for every 100kg DM/ha above that, DM/ha pastures should be closed for 1.4 days less.

Preparing silage and feeding out Minimise exposure to air when harvesting pasture and stacking or baling it up for silage.

Even in good harvesting conditions, you can lose between five to 10 percent of pasture: in the worst, up to

25 percent.

Select paddocks that minimise machinery turns (corners, obstacles).

If you’re using a stack or pit, make sure it’s well-packed and covered promptly.

All silage should be given time to ferment before feeding out.

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Depending on the inoculants used, any silage stack or bale should not be opened for three to four weeks after closing.

Shape stacks and pits to suit herd size and clean the stack face daily, so it’s not exposed to air for longer than 24 hours.

Movement of the silage within

a stack should be minimised (use a block cutter/shear grab).

Wastage at feeding out is best reduced by using a feed pad so cows cannot trample the silage into the ground.

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Thursday, October 10, 2019 Wairarapa Times-Age

HAY & SILAGE

Simple, cost effective Silage is an integral part of a dairy or beef herd’s supplementary diet. But regardless of whether you are harvesting maize, pasture, cereal or lucerne, there is no guarantee that the resulting silage will be of high quality.

With the hard work you put into crop establishment, growth, harvesting and stacking, it makes sense to add a simple, cost-effect step to the silage-making process – one that is proven to increase the amount of milk or meat your animals produce.

Applied to the crop or pasture at harvest time, Pioneer brand silage inoculants provide the right strains of lactic acidproducing bacteria in ideal numbers to efficiently ferment your pasture or crop.

Although the science behind producing a high-quality Pioneer brand inoculant is complex, the way they work is relatively simple.

Due to the losses that occur

during fermentation, silage is always slightly lower in quality than the material that was ensiled. The amount of dry matter, nutrients and feed energy lost in the silage stack is largely determined by the speed and quality of fermentation. The speed and quality of the fermentation is influenced by the number and type of fermentation bacteria which are present.

High quality silage translates to higher energy – which results in more milk and

meat for every tonne of forage you ensile.

Pioneer offers silage inoculants suitable for each and every crop or pasture you ensile:

Pioneer brand 1127

A pasture silage specific inoculant that helps improve fermentation, retain nutrient content and enhance digestibility of pasture silage.

It improves the feed value and milk or meat production of pasture silage.

FOR ALL YOUR AGRICULTURAL REQUIREMENTS • Silage: grass, maize and cereal • Baleage • Hay and straw, round and square • Full cultivation and drilling • Slurry tanking and umbilical • Digger and truck hire

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27

www.age.co.nz Thursday, October 10, 2019

step of the silage process Pioneer brand 11H50

Pioneer’s lucerne silage inoculant. Pioneer 11H50 helps improve the fermentation, retain the nutrient content and enhance the digestibility of lucerne silage. 11H50 produces top quality lucerne silage for all high producing livestock operations.

Pioneer brand 1174 This multi-crop inoculant is suitable for use on all types of silage including pasture, cereal and lucerne silage.

Pioneer 1174 helps improve fermentation, retain nutrient content and enhance digestibility.

Pioneer brand 11C33

Pioneer 11C33 is a maize silage specific inoculant. This inoculant helps keep silage cooler for longer, enabling it

The amount of dry matter, nutrients and feed energy lost in the silage stack is largely determined by the speed and quality of fermentation.

to be fed out up to a day in advance.

Pioneer brand 1132 Also a maize specific

inoculant, Pioneer 1132 produces top quality maize silage for high producing dairy cows and specialised beef production.

When buying a silage inoculant, don’t be fooled by cheaper products. They may have the same bacteria name on the bottle, but just like two cows differ in the efficiency with which they convert grass to milk, bacteria differ in their ability to improve silage fermentation quality.

Cheaper products may lack animal performance data, or technical personnel who really understand silage and back up the product. Cheaper products are often derived from a buying strategy of sourcing the lowest-cost unproven bacterial strains, and lack quality standards and label bacterial count guarantees.

By comparison, Pioneer

brand inoculants have undergone stringently controlled research, trialling and field evaluation before they hit the market.

The bacterial strains in Pioneer brand inoculants are unique and patented, and specially selected to give a faster, more efficient fermentation.

The inoculants are also produced and packaged by a system that meets ISO9001:2000 quality standards to ensure you get the right numbers of the correct strains of live bacteria, in the right proportions, in every bottle that is applied.

To find out more about how Pioneer brand inoculants and our exclusive applicator technology work, contact your local Pioneer area manager or call 0800 PIONEER (746 633).

STORY CREDIT: GENETIC TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED

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Thursday, October 10, 2019 Wairarapa Times-Age

Having a good yarn essential It used to be that a day’s haymaking was followed by a beer or two, sometimes at the local pub. But the gradual loss of country pubs is part of increasing isolation for farmers is being seen – and now addressed – by rural contractors.

Otago rural contractor Reid Gare was one of those attending a Good Yarns workshop at the RCNZ conference in Nelson earlier this year.

Good Yarns is an evidencebased, peer-delivered, mental health literacy programme for workplaces, both rural and urban, that enables people to talk about mental health.

Reid says his staff often comment on the amount of time he spends talking to farmers.

“Farmers and contractors both face a lot of time working alone. A lot of farmers love to have a yarn.

I see that as just a part of my job or call it PR.”

He says contractors have to be careful as not everyone wants to talk and they can be masking a range of emotions, though sometimes the signals are there that all is not well.

“I’ve seen guys react to some situations in the strangest of ways – that always raises alarm bells for me.”

Rural Contractors NZ vice president Helen Slattery lead the Good Yarns workshop at the Rural Contractors

conference.

Helen trained as a Good Yarns facilitator after the loss of a family member due to suicide.

“These things are happening too often in rural communities.

“Farmers can become isolated.

“As rural contractors, we are often the only person that they might see during the day. It’s important for them to have someone to yak to”

Helen says one place farmers used to be able to talk were country pubs.

“Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer of these, so farmers don’t get the same chance to meet mates and neighbours. Even for those who still have a pub within cooee face the realities of tougher drink driving laws.”

Reid Gare says it’s not just the loss of country pubs that’s causing more farmers to be isolated. With many

farming wives and partners now working off-farm for both economic and social reasons, there was much less opportunity for partner-topartner contact through the day.

“Sometimes farmers don’t go in for smoko and keep working. By the time the partner gets home they are both tired and there’s less chance to talk.”

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www.age.co.nz Thursday, October 10, 2019

Guidelines for safe hay stacking Transporting and stacking large hay bales has resulted in numerous injuries and deaths of some operators of machinery or people nearby. Many of these accidents could have been prevented had equipment more suited to the job been used and more care taken by the operators when using the equipment. A set of guidelines for safer handling of large bales is available at worksafe.govt.nz The booklet gives safety advice to everyone involved in the handling, transportation and stacking of large hay bales, dealing with both round and square bales. It helps identify the hazards in the job and the necessary precautions and control measures so that accidents can be avoided.

Assess the hazards All work activities involving bale transportation, stacking and handling need to be assessed to ascertain the hazards and the steps needed to protect those involved

from the hazards. This applies whether you are an employer, self-employed, a contractor or a person in control. When assessing hazards, don’t overlook the risks to your family and members of the public as well as to yourself and your employees.

Child safety Children are particularly at risk when farm machinery is in use. Keep children well away from bale stacks and handling and stacking operations. Supervise young children.

Don’t allow children under the age of 15 years to assist with, adjust or clean any machinery. Don’t allow children under the age of 15 years to drive a tractor, ride on a tractor when it is towing an implement, or ride on any implement.

Employee safety If you are an employer, you should ensure that your employees have the

knowledge and experience, or are supervised by a person with the knowledge and experience, to ensure that the employees and others are not harmed and have been properly trained in the operation and safe use of machinery and equipment, the correct and safe procedures to follow, and the correct equipment for the task, and are aware of the dangers and precautions to be observed.

It’s also recommended that you ensure employees are medically and physically fit for the type of work.

Employees must not do anything likely to endanger themselves or others and should report all defects in machinery and equipment to the person in charge.

To read the whole booklet go to worksafe.govt. nz/topic-and-industry/ agriculture/farm-vehicles/ transportation-and-stackingof-hay-bales/

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Thursday, October 10, 2019 Wairarapa Times-Age

HAY & SILAGE

Pasture Silage – getting

It has been a good spring, and some will be lucky enough to have excess pasture and considering shutting up paddocks for silage. If it is going to become silage, how do we make the good stu˜ ?

pasture silage feeding starts.

Over half of the pasture silage fed out to the dairy herds in the survey was rubbish and barely suitable for maintenance feeding for dry cows.

A good start is to look at the characteristics of good quality pasture silage.

To know what influences silage quality, we need to understand the silage preservation process. Silage is basically pickled pasture (like sauerkraut, which is pickled cabbage). When pasture is ensiled, its sugars are converted into lactic acid by bacteria. It is the lactic acid that pickles the pasture.

For good silage preservation we need a rapid drop in pH to a level where there will be no butyric fermentation (spoilage).

High quality pasture silage has high levels of energy, crude protein and is highly digestible.

How often are the optimum values being achieved? Do you measure the quality of your pasture silage?

The minimum values for high quality pasture silage are: Metabolisable Energy (ME) 10.5, crude protein 16%, digestability 70%, DM pit silage 25-30%, DM baled silage 30-35%.

An LIC survey in 1994/95 showed that more than 70% of silage submitted had an ME of less than 10 MJME / kg DM. It’s no wonder then that we often see cows dropping in milk production and cow condition when

Getting a good brew

So, whatever we can do to maximise sugar content of the pasture and speed up the preservation process will result in higher quality silage that our cows desire to eat.

The key factors to get right are: 1. Harvest time 2. Dry Matter % 3. Ensiling & compaction

Harvest Time The ensiling process will never improve the energy value of the pasture. Silage will always be of lower quality than the pasture it was made from. Rubbish in = Worse Rubbish out.

The sweet spot looks to be at 5 - 6 weeks post closure, harvesting at 3 – 3.5 TDM / ha with an ME of 11 - 11.3.

This data is backed up by Ruakura research from 1996 proceedings that stated “the optimal closure period for pit silage was generally five and

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www.age.co.nz Thursday, October 10, 2019

the good stuff fresh pasture samples in to get tested to determine when the optimum time is to harvest so a method commonly used is the squeeze test as follows: Cut the pasture into 2 – 3 cm lengths, roll it into a ball about twice the size of a golf ball and squeeze it in your fist for 30 seconds. There should be no juice running down your hand and the pasture sample should stay in a ball when you stop squeezing. If there is juice running out of the sample more wilting is required. a half weeks”. This research calculated the economic optimum taking into account the expected liveweight gain or milksolids production from feeding the silage after taking into account the cost of making the silage, (higher yield has lower per unit cost to harvest).

There is always a tradeoff between quantity and quality, however the optimum closure time for making pasture silage is 5 – 6 weeks after the previous grazing, for both milking and dry cows.

2. Dry Matter % The dry matter target for pit pasture silage is 25 – 30 %. The reason for this is to reduce the losses from silage effluent once in the stack. If the dry matter % is too low the surplus water carries soluble sugars and proteins out of the silage and dry matter is lost.

As dry matter exceeds 30% the losses in the field rise due to excess wilting (respiration) rise and from being lost while the silage is being picked up.

It is not practical to send

To minimise silage losses: • Mow pasture after 1 – 2 days of sunny weather to ensure good sugar levels in the pasture.

• Minimise the wilting time by cutting silage in the morning of a sunny day.

• Avoid wilting for more than 24 hours.

• Harvest silage at the optimum 25 – 30 % DM. • Good compaction & sealing Good compaction and sealing help to ensure an efficient fermentation process is started and reduce the risk of

heating and mould growth.

The less air that is in or can get into the silage the better.

3. Keys to achieving good compaction and sealing: • Harvest at the right DM%.

If DM is above 30% the silage will be harder to compact.

• Use the heaviest wheeled vehicle available to compact.

• Spread the harvested pasture into 100 – 150 mm layers and compact until the surface is firm.

If the tractor wheels sink further than the depth of the rubber the layers are too thick.

• Don’t be in too much of a hurry. It’s hard to get correct compaction if the trucks are coming thick and fast or all at the same time. Discuss this with the contractor to get the right result.

• Seal the stack with an airtight cover. Fix any holes in the plastic straight away.

• Tyres should be touching

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and covering the whole stack.

• Ensure there is minimum soil contamination from the stack tractor or brought in from the field.

• Drainage - think about where rain water will go when it runs off the stack. Make sure there is sufficient drainage so that water goes away from the stack.

• If concrete walled pits are not full, make a concave top rather than a convex top to avoid water seeping down the side of the pit.

Know what the quality of your silage is. Silage should be tested. I often hear the comment “it’s in the stack, we can’t change it now”.

How do you know how successful you are at making silage if you don’t measure the result? If you measure the result you know what was achieved, then you can investigate why the result was achieved, what lessons can be learned and what can be changed to achieve a better result next time?

REPRODUCED FROM BAKERAG’S MONTHLY PUBLICATION, MILKLINES.