Alternative feeds will bridge the forage gap

摘要

Wholecrop cereals and stubble turnips will be making up for lower silage yields on one Staffordshire dairy farm this autumn. The summer drought has left forage stocks desperately low at Church Farm, Coppenhall, near Stafford, so Bill Madders has cut 7ha of Brigadier wheat to ensile with the second cut grass silage and direct drilled Barkant stubble turnips in its place. "We have not tried whole-crop before, but the weather has forced us to give it a go," says Bill, who farms 227ha in partnership with his father Frank, wife Elizabeth and son Michael.