Nathan Hall combines his job at Fane Valley Stores’ operation in Augher with milking 55 spring calving dairy cows. He started up the dairying business as a new entrant five years ago. The Fivemiletown man is committed to maximising milk output from grass and forage.
“The cows are currently averaging 7,000L and there is scope to expand the herd over the coming years,” he said.
Optimising output from grazed grass and silage are equally important for Nathan. He normally takes two cuts of silage annually.
“We are on target to get a first cut into the silo around May 28th this year. The equivalent date last year was May 29th,” he said.
Nathan uses local contractor Kyle Farlow to put in the two silage crops. The grass is cut, wilted for 24 hours and then lifted using a precision chop harvester. He has consistently used the inoculant Advance+, from Provita, since going out on his own.
“I took the decision for two reasons,” he explained.
“The product helps drive intakes and the amount of waste at both the silo face and the feed barrier is almost non-existent.
“Improved forage intakes help drive milk production while, at the same time, reducing my reliance on expensive concentrates.”
Nathan added:
“The reduction in wastage is enough to make the investment in Advance+ more than worthwhile. So the fact that it is also driving forage intakes really is the icing on the cake.”
The analysis results from Nathan’s first cut silage crop last year is proof positive of the significant impact which Advance+ has on silage quality.
“The ME Value came in at 12.1% while the DMD was 72.3% with overall fermentation quality classified as excellent. These figures speak for themselves.
“Last year I used Advance+ on the first cut but not the second, the first cut kept much better. This was good evidence that it was working well so I’ll be using it on all cuts in the future.”