All you need to know about Canola Silage and Hay
- By: "Farm Tender" News
- Water & Irrigation News
- Oct 05, 2018
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By Mark Lourey - Feedworks - 0407 366 426
The last month has seen a lot of canola crops getting cut for forage rather than taken through to seed due to the modest likely seed yields, poor rainfall predictions and the opportunity value of the crops as fodder is favourable this season. That in turn has led to a lot of enquiry from farmers about feeding canola silage, so let’s talk about some of the pros and cons of canola silage as we see them.
We agree that palatability of canola crops is typically better when put down as silage over hay. However, unlike cereal hay’s, we don’t normally have the water-soluble carb content in canola (so getting great fermentation is tough), but we can still make reasonable silage if managed well.
As always, just cutting and baling it doesn’t mean it’s any good. Plant maturity is the big driver here. The quality is all about how mature the crop is at cutting. If it is a failed crop with modest biomass, and more leaf and not too much overt chunky stem, then the crop can test well in forage analysis (www.foragelabaustralia.com.au). We have heard of crops testing 20% CP and 10 MJ, but that is not typical, and we certainly haven’t seen any tests in that ballpark so far this year. Most of the time its considerably worse which reinforces the fact that maturity is the key factor when making canola hay.
If we can get in at modest flowering, and ongoing leaf and not excess woody stem, more typical is 16% protein, 55% NDF, and 9MJME/kg. If its 90% flowering it won’t be as good. The other key here is it must be cut with a mower-conditioner wherever possible. The conditioner just helps break up the stem, and also shortens the curing time. This is still important for crops cut through the header front… a conditioner or squeezer as soon as possible after cutting is essential to made remotely decent stuff.
The more mature it is, the harder it is to retain leaf matter of the plant leaving just woody stems with an appearance of “baled twigs or boxthorn hedge”. It’s also suggested to lift the cutter bar up several inches to leave more stalk in the ground, and to bale at a couple of % higher in moisture and using a preservative. This will help in 2 ways:
1) Helping retain leaf matter
2) Sulphur base preservatives will help reduce the lignin make the forage more palatable and increase intake.
The use of a preservative will help to prevent spoilage organisms taking hold from the forage laying in the windrow waiting to cure down to safe baling moistures.
The other part of the discussion is about safety, and in particular, toxins and nitrates.
Nitrates: Like any heavily N reliant plant, nitrates can accumulate in the plant, so there is a risk. As such, we strongly encourage limiting intakes just to be sure to about 5kg DMI. It can’t be 100% of the diet, and ideally never even 100% of the forage.
Toxins: Canola forage is typically bitter due to glucosinolates, which a really high levels, can pose a problem, but a healthy rumen can process glucosinolates, so stick to the 5kg max feed rate, and the risk is reduced. We should also acknowledge that yes, if we don’t get the air out of it, like any silage it will grow some manky stuff, but if we conserve it right, we should be OK, that rule is nothing special to canola.
In no way are we saying that canola silage is the best feed available. It doesn’t taste great, so cows will typically select against it to a degree, but as a modest component of a balanced diet, it can fit and save a few dollars, stretch out the better-quality forages available, and most importantly, is better than nothing at all.
As always, if you want to talk it through, we are always on the end of the phone.
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