{"id":15119,"date":"2015-08-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-08-24T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmersweekly.co.nz\/the-pit-of-the-matter\/"},"modified":"2015-08-25T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-08-24T12:00:00","slug":"the-pit-of-the-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmersweekly.co.nz\/news\/the-pit-of-the-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"The pit of the matter"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> < 1<\/span> minute<\/span><\/span>

The drymatter figure was particularly important for silage because it was a guide on how much wet silage needed to be fed to achieve the end feeding result. It also gave an indication of how palatable the silage was because very dry (more than 80%) or very wet (less than 20%) were generally less palatable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The most desirable crude protein level depended on what the silage was being fed for. A 10-12% range was suitable for hind maintenance whereas 14-16% was needed to put weight on weaners.<\/p>\n

With metabolisable energy (ME), the higher the better and the ideal range depended on what it was being fed for. Reasonable growth came from silage in the 10.5-12 ME range.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stevens said that 0.5% should be deducted from the test result for newly made silage.<\/p>\n

Another noteworthy reading was the ash level. If more than 10% this indicated dirt contamination and a potential listeriosis risk.<\/p>\n

Ways to mitigate leachate loss from pit silage were overviewed by Andrew Wall of AgResearch. He said the big problem with leachate was it sucked up the oxygen in waterways.<\/p>\n

Leachate was produced during the making of silage, grazing at the feeding face, rain, and transfer of silage by deer to the run-off area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wall said ideal silage should comprise 25-28% drymatter. It shouldn\u2019t be stacked too high and needed to be covered as soon as possible to prevent moisture seeping in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In order to maintain quality and prevent wastage only two days worth at a time needed to be uncovered.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Any waste should be regularly cleared from the grazing area to prevent it from being tramped back into the run-off area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Self-fed silage stacks up well for deer so long as what goes into the pit is good quality, AgResearch scientist David Stevens said at a Southland Deer Focus Farm day recently.\nStevens was one of several industry experts who spoke about best practice management for silage pad feeding of hinds and weaners. Quantifying silage quality meant herbage testing as it went into the pit, and taking on board the important data of the test results. His advice was to skip the \u201creference range\u201d data because all that reported was how a particular sample sat in relation to the rest processed by the lab. Instead hone in on the key nutrient information of drymatter, crude protein, metabolisable energy, ammonia-N and butyric acid.\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":15120,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t