Key Points 9/18/2011. Lucerne is the Queen of forages and the lawyer of the devil at the same time. Keith Bolsen Kansas State University

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1 Why making high quality Red Clover Silage needs special care Why Red Clover Silage? With careful management - Produces high yield - Produces quality silage Dr. David Davies, Silage Solutions Ltd. dave@silagesolutions.co.uk Red Clover has - higher nutritional value - higher voluntary intake Key Points Lucerne is the Queen of forages and the lawyer of the devil at the same time Keith Bolsen Kansas State University Cutting Wilting Ensiling Analysing Feeding 1

2 Key Problems for Ensiling Forage Buffering Capacity (meq/kg) Leaf Shatter High Buffering Capacity Low WSC red clover hybrid ryegrass Typical Crop Quality- Red Clover Effect of Buffering Capacity on ph Decline DM % 28. Starch % 2. ADF % 25.9 NDF % 35.8 Buffering meq/kg 549 Sugar % FM Protein % Enterobacteria Saccharolytic Clostridia Proteolytic Clostridia 2

3 SUGAR Cutting Red Clover WSC Requirements for silage making At 2% DM Untreated 3. % fresh or 15 g/kg DM 2. % fresh or 1 g/kg DM Forage Sugar Content (g/kg DM) Wilting Red Clover Red Clover Hybrid ryegrass Leaf shatter - Avoid using conditioners - Rake before dew rises - Wilt rapidly to 3% DM - Maximum Wilt 48 h 3

4 The ideal legume swath moover Inoculants? IGER Ensiling mixed Red Clover Swards (1.57% WSC, 22%CP) Mean of 3 Trials ph Control 4

5 IGER Ensiling mixed Red Clover Swards (1.57% WSC, 22%CP) Mean of 3 Trials NH3g/kg DM Control Red Clover Protein N protein N g/kg DM Untreated 12.6 % IGER Ensiling mixed Red Clover Swards (1.57% WSC, 22%CP) Mean of 3 Trials Lactate g/kg DM Control Sheep Trials red Clover N- balance (g/d) Untreated 33 % 5

6 Fermentation Fresh grass Sugars Acetic acid Mannitol Inoculant Methanol Homofermentative Heterofermentative CO 2 Lactic acid + H 2 Silage Lactic acid 2 H 2 Additives and silage WSC ph Ammonia-N (g/kg TN) Lactic Acid (g/kg DM) Untreated Heterofermentative Homofermentative Heterofermentative = L.buchneri, L.brevis Homofermentative = L. plantarum, Pediococci, Lactococcus etc Chemical Additives WSC (g/kg DM) Legumes Lucerne silages more stable than maize (Muck and O Kiely 1992) Legume silages more stable than grass (Dewhurst unpublished observations) Clamp or bale? 1% Red Clover Clamp Bale Dry Matter (g/kg) ph Ammonia N (g/kg N) Crude Protein (g/kg DM) WSC (g/kg DM) 13 2 Lactate (g/kg DM) Acetate (g/kg DM) 7 8 In vivo DMD (%) 6 62 Fychan et al. 6

7 Silage analysis What is involved...? Analysing 5 farm silages from Wales Comparing Standard NIR analysis with Traditional Wet Chemistry Near Infra Red spectroscopy Multivariate datasets Absorbance (arbitrary) Wavenumber cm -1 5 Cyllidwyd y prosiect hwn drwy Gynllun Datblygu Gwledig Cymru a ariennir gan Lywodraeth Cynulliad Cymru a'r Undeb Ewropeaidd. This project has received funding through the Rural Development Plan for Wales which is funded by the Welsh Assembly Government and the European Union. Silage Analysis Silage is analysed by NIR methods Technique relies on regression analysis back to wet chemical analysis of a number of samples It s only as good as the subset wet chemistry samples Problem is that the subset samples aren t sufficiently robust for Red Clover Predicted Means and effects of analyses in the study Analysis method Wet NIR SED Effect P Chemistry Dry matter, g/kg ph <.1 Crude protein, g/kg DM <.1 Ammonia-N, g/kg DM Lactic acid, g/kg DM <.1 Neutral detergent fibre, g/kg DM Davies Unpub 211 7

8 Grass vs. red clover silage: live weight gain.9.8 Grass Red clover Animal Studies with Red Clover Silage LW gain (kg/day) Forage *** Genotype ns.1 Welsh black Charlois cross Welsh black Limousin cross 1998/ /2 Vale et al. (2) Red clover silage for milk production Grass 5%RC 1% RC Take home message Red Clover can fix 25kg N/ha per annum so reducing reliance on inorganic N fertiliser Red Clover can be ensiled successfully with wilting and the use of additive being beneficial Grass 5%RC 1% RC Dewhurst et al 2 Using Red Clover will improve animal production due to its higher nutritional value and higher intake BUT get it analysed correctly! 8

9 Our Resources Website: Factsheets: Advisory articles: The Silage Advisory Centre is supported by For more information please visit: Follow us on Contact us David Craig Managing Director +44 () Sergio Di Gesù Secretary and PR Manager +32 () For more info: About the Silage Advisory Centre (SilAC) We promote independent best practice advice to aid UK and Irish livestock farmers improve silage quality, forage utilisation and thus profitability though research, seminars, knowledge transfer and advisory tools We are an industry initiative supported by founding members: bpi.agri, BSH, Dow, Dow Agro, Kuhn, IBERS and Mole Valley Farmers We focus on exploring ways in which baled silage can fit livestock production systems to improve production efficiency, reduce costs and improve profitability 9