Projects

Aim: “ Reducing the wastage of Whole Crop silage bunker feeding ”                

Richard was growing Whole crop silage and pad feeding it over the winter to his hinds. He was contemplating not sowing Whole Crop as the wastage from the bunkers was just to high.

Wastage in a typical year was calculated to be approximately 70,000kgDM per annum.

The Advance Party identified that numbers of animals feeding on the open face of the silage bunkers were too low, resulting in low competition at the silage face and trampling from animals being selective. It was recommended that Richard significantly increase the stocking rate on the bunkers - nearly doubling the numbers of hinds accessing the face.

The basic details of the silage pits are as follows:

2 bunkers with the following dimensions:   33m wide face* 1.6m high *12m deep

Wastage was 40cm deep the area

Wastage = 33m*12m*0.4 = 158m³    * 220kgDM/m³ = 35,000 kgDM  * 2 silage pits. =70,000kgDM

Wastage was reduced by 50% down to 20cm deep = 35,000kgDM

Saving of wastage 35,000kgDM

Value of this feed on the market 35,000* $0.3/kgDM = $10,500

Feeding of this silage to hinds

The bunker silage only made up a proportion of the hinds diets while they are on the pads. The paddocks adjacent to the bunkers contained brassicas which made up a majority of the diet. Historically Richard would put 500 hinds on the 2 pits providing a 66m face. The change Richard made was to increase the numbers to 900 hinds on this 66m face.