Cattle producers in southern Australia should be thinking about replenishing drought reserves with silage rather than hay. That is the view of Frank Mickan, pasture and fodder conservation specialist, Department of Natural Resources and Environment,Ellinbank, Victoria, who says silage quality usually makes it the lowest cost fodder for long-term storage. Droughts usually exhaust all supplies of the farm's fodder reserves. Buying extra fodder is generally very expensive in drought periods and its quality is often very poor, particularly as supplies becomes short. Then there is the extra hassle of diseases and weeds being imported onto the property with the hay. Mickan says although farmers may be short of cash after the fodder harvest, they shouldthink carefully about the high cost paid for extra hay of poor quality last drought. "It will have cost you 1.5 to 3 times the cost of this pasture you may be allowing to go to waste. It was hard to find money for extra drought fodder but, hopefully youmay soon be in a better position financially to put away an extra pit, or bales of silage as a drought storage," he says.
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