In brave new world we'll be growing both food and fuel!

摘要

This month Pat Bird turns her attention to the problem of poor quality forages and the impact our commitment to biofuels will have on wheat production and other commodity feedstocks. When it comes to formulating winter rations we're only just startingto see the effects of this year's drought, flood and plague in the form of BTV infected midges. The laboratories that analyse forage samples say the quality is patchy this year, ranging from very dry fluff to wet, unstable mush. Average energy levels are 10.5ME on first cut silage and 10.3ME on second. Proteins generally are low. Some of the early cuts are not only wet but have high VFAs and butyric fermentation which will limit intake, and already some mature second cuts are being met with little enthusiasm.