Farmers told to feed damaged forage carefully due to contamination levels

Samples

That made taking representative samples from right across the crop important.

Mr Davies said failing to check DM could alter the concentrate to forage ratio of any diet, which risked compromising the production and health of the animal.

Flooded silage should also be tested for nutritive value, because water soluble nutrients were likely to have been lost.

Damaged bales must be fed carefully, particularly if mould was apparent. He suggested comparing it with an unaffected crop to check for any changes.

If both samples smelled similar then there might not be a problem, but if a touch test revealed sand grit or silt then soil contamination should be suspected.

Mr Davies said: “If it feels slimy as well then there has been more clostridia ingress.”

He also said mouldy areas and a buffer zone around them should be excluded from any feed.

“The clostridia will have moved from the mouldy area into the adjacent part of the bale, so that needs to be removed.”

Where bales had suffered irreparable damage, Mr Davies said they should be fed immediately rather than retained.

Damaged bales could be repaired and retained, but should be marked clearly so farm staff did not forget about the damage and feed them inappropriately.

He said: “Never feed flood damaged silage to dry or transition cows or pregnant ewes. Those are your most important livestock and the most vulnerable to disease.”

Is it too late to harvest maize?

MR Davies said forage maize could still be foraged or combined in January or February if ground conditions prevented it being taken earlier, but foraging the whole plant might be risky.

He said: “The stem and lower leaves may be heavily soil contaminated. They will also be dead and have little nutritive value.

“If there is visible mould on the plant, it could increase aerobic spoilage and mycotoxin levels.”

Raising the cutting height to 30cm instead of 10cm would reduce contamination risks and remove low-nutrient material from the final silage.

If crops were combined, Mr Davies urged farmers to ensure the seed crackers were working efficiently because the seeds would be harder than normal and must be cracked for their full nutritive value to be realised.

He added that starch content might also be higher than normal and, ironically, given the wet weather, the silage might have a higher DM because the plant was dead.