Picking your way through silage analyses

摘要

The introduction of the Feed into Milk system has meant a whole new set of terms appearing on silage forms. ADAS nutritionist Chris Savery helps us through them. The Feed into Milk project has greatly improved our understanding of the nutritional requirements of the modern dairy cow. As part of this upgrade in our approach to ration formulation we now have a new set of silage analysis figures and terminology. While many of the standard measurements like D value, ME, and Crude Protein remain, we nowalso have predictors of intake and acid loading which give us a better indication of how silages will actually perform in practice. The main silage analysis terms and ranges of measurements are set out in Table 1.