Aftermath to First Cut Key for Second Cut Quality Silage

Author: 
Dr. D. Davies

Despite the slow spring many of you will either have just finished, or be about to carry out, first cut silage making.  Once the fields have been cleared there are three important things to consider prior to closing the gate for the re-growth for second cut:

1. Assess moles and soil contamination

2. Be sure not to over fertilise

3. Remove residual grass

Despite the slow spring many of you will either have just finished, or be about to carry out, first cut silage making.  Once the fields have been cleared there are three important things to consider prior to closing the gate for the re-growth for second cut.

1. Assess moles and soil contamination

Now the fields are bare once more, any potential areas of soil contamination can be easily assessed.

Soil contamination is one of the biggest causes of both poor silage fermentation (resulting in silages with high concentrations of ammonia and butyric acid) and listeria contamination.  The latter being a particular problem in baled silage. Consider rolling and controlling moles in areas that look as though there is a risk.

2. Be sure not to over fertilise

There a couple of factors worthy of note when deciding on fertiliser requirements this season.

Firstly, assess first cut forage yields. Poorer growth this spring may have resulted in reduced yields, which could be an indication that some fertiliser nitrogen applied earlier in the year remains un-utilised.

Secondly, the rise in fertiliser costs over the past two seasons may mean you are considering utilizing slurry.  Surface spreading of slurry, significantly increases the risks of contamination with undesirable bacteria resulting in poor silage fermentation.

I would recommend that the absolute minimum interval between surface slurry spreading and harvesting is 6 weeks. 

3. Remove residual grass

Finally often some residual herbage is left in the field after first cut.  This can either be areas missed to be picked up, or where grass was not mown cleanly leaving flattened un-cut grass.  It is important to remove this herbage, ‘mob’ grazing for a day or so. 

Failure to do so will lead to it rotting in the filed and dramatically increasing the number of undesirable bacteria, yeasts and moulds on the forage during the subsequent harvest.  This in-turn will result in either a poor fermentation or increased risks of silage aerobic spoilage and/or mould growth in the bale or clamp.

icon: