Check yor forage stocks!

Many of our clients have had a good 1st & 2nd cut, and the quality is generally good. The recent hot weather has sent grass backwards, and the next cut will be a lot lighter than expected. It is important that we still get the cut off before we have any decent amount of rain so that we have some good regrowth for the next cut - if we leave it then we end up with a severe lack of overall forage on most farms. Given this situation, it is important to assess overall forage stocks now and look at options to top up forage stocks if needed. That could be taking some wholecrop (getting plenty late enough for this but could still be ok on Spring crops), or perhaps buying some standing grass or maize as a top up. There have been some good crops of hay made in excellent conditions over the past couple of weeks, so this could be used to plug a gap for early dry cows and youngstock over the winter. Maize crops are certainly variable this year, a good dose of rain would help! Some of these crops have tassled very early so we wont be able to expect bumper yields on these crops. Moist Feeds are jumping in price along with everything else, I understand Brewers Grains are not available now and they could sell what they have 10 times over. Other alternatives like Trafford Gold or AmyPlus are available, but the price tag doesn’t make them very attractive. Whilst these are always an option for topping up forage stocks, its going to be much more cost effective to take forage instead if we can. If you are at all concerned about forage stocks, please contact us as soon as possible to discuss the options in more detail.

Sam Kelly 07777 696080 sam@kellyfarmconsulting.com

Charlie Davies 07904 601104 charlie@kellyfarmconsulting.com

Laura Cureton 07399 117257 laura@kellyfarmconsulting.com

Office 01454 614624