Top tips on ensiling wholecrop

Wholecrop forms around half of the ration for the transition cows and is added in smaller quantities to the milking herd ration.

George Fabi says: “We started growing wholecrop to feed our transition cows to reduce milk fever cases due to high potassium levels in grass silage.

Now we see just one or two cases each year.

Winter and spring “We grow winter and spring wheat and oats, with roughly twice as much winter than spring crops because they yield better, even though they cost more to grow.

“Maize is grown after a grass ley followed by wheat and then oats, which are a really good clean up crop before we establish a grass ley again.

We do the cultivations ourselves but a contractor does our drilling.

The land receives plenty of slurry and box manure so we do not apply much fertiliser to avoid lodging.

“Wheat gives us a better feed with more starch, but oats form a bulkier crop with more straw and therefore fibre levels are higher.

We harvest the wheat when the grain has matured beyond the ‘cheesy’ stage at the point where we can rub the grain and it will turn powdery.

“We have a fantastic contractor and he has a good mill on the processor which squashes the grain very flat which opens it up so our cows can fully digest it.

We use an additive in the wholecrop as we find it aids the fermentation process.

Mr Fabi also grows 24 hectares (60 acres) of maize under oxo-degradable film and this is fed to the milk cows and sometimes instead of wholecrop for the transition cows.

He says the maize grows and feeds well and by picking a harvest date carefully, they rarely encounter problems.