What Are Different Feeds and Forages Worth?

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Gerard Finnan (FCG Midwest)

With the severe lack of forage which is now nearly nationwide caused by the current drought conditions, feed costs have spiralled upwards as stocks are dwindling. Grass based herds are on 80%+ winter diets eating into valuable winter feed stocks. The onset of rain at the end of August is getting late to ensure a decent late silage cut. 

So, what are your options to make up the shortfall? For the dairy farmer culling empty cows early is an option, but the price of milk is outweighing the higher cull cow prices resulting in continued high milk production, even with the high forage prices. Sow some forage crops for grazing later in the autumn, but this depends on getting some moisture to germinate.

There will be an opportunity to drill westerwold or IRG behind early harvested maize which has been happening since mid-august in the extreme south.  This could be grazed with youngstock or zero grazed and then cut next spring for silage. This runs the risk of taking a lot of moisture out of ground in spring if double cropping with Maize.  

Forage costs delivered in from fellow farmers have doubled in price compared to other years. I have always said that good homegrown forage is undervalued vs concentrate replacers. This year the opposite has happened as the arable farmers can testify in that cereal and protein concentrate prices are at five-year lows and now look a lot more attractive than buying forages for £60/t + or £800/ac + for Maize.  

As a minimum work out, what are the cost per tonne of dry matter for each of these feeds as forages are 25-40% DM vs concentrates at 85-90% DM. Drier feeds will tend to be higher in energy and protein so ideally this needs to be factored in. We use a program which compares the DM, energy and protein of feeds to give a fuller nutritional comparison which is valuable in advising our clients of what is best value to buy. In previous feed shortages it has always the homegrown feeds which were better value but would be difficult to source. This year in some cases it’s the opposite, which makes it easier by picking up the phone to order, if still painful on your pocket. 

Contact Allaster at allasterdallas@fcgagric.com or one of my FCG colleagues today, to assess what alternative feeds are right for your situation to buy, not to get sold!

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