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By Diarmuid O’Riordan IASIS, TMR Area Sales Manager, Dairygold Agri Business
The yield of wholecrop can vary from 8-16T depending the grain yield.
| Winter Wheat | Spring Barley | Spring Barley | |
| Grain Yield potential @ 20% MC | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| Expected total yield T fresh (grain + straw) | 14.5 | 11 | 8.5 |
Assuming your wholecrop silage yields 10T per acre and is 35% DM then every acre has the potential to feed 3 cows over a 3 month winter.
The number of cows fed across the winter by differing areas of 10T per acre crop of wholecrop (assume maize is the only forage available)::
| Area | 3 Months | 4 Months | 5 Months | |
| 10 | acres | 32 | 24 | 19 |
| 15 | acres | 49 | 36 | 29 |
| 20 | acres | 65 | 49 | 39 |
| 25 | acres | 81 | 61 | 49 |
| 30 | acres | 97 | 73 | 58 |
| 40 | acres | 130 | 97 | 78 |
| 50 | acres | 162 | 122 | 97 |
The feeding value of whole crop cereal silage can vary from inferior to grass silage to being superior, with the difference in nutritive value being predominantly determined by the content of the developed grain. Winter wheat and spring barley, both at 50% grain in the harvested DM, can have similar and excellent nutritive value.
| Winter Wheat | Spring Barley | Spring Barley | |
| Grain Yield potential @ 20% MC | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| Feed value, equivalent DMD | 74%+ | 74%+ | 65% |
| Feed value, equivalent UFL | 0.83 | 0.83 | 0.72 |
To get the best from your wholecrop keep if for your freshly calved cows. It works well with grass silage when being fed 50:50 or as a buffer once cows go out to grass. As wholecrop is lower in protein you will need to use higher protein balancer feeds.
| Grass silage 65 DMD | 8.5kg Post calver gold 18% |
| Grass silage 70 DMD | 7kg Post calver gold 18% |
| 50% Grass Silage (70 DMD) + 50% Wholecrop (4Tcrop) | 8kg Balancer gold 22.5% |
| 50% Grass Silage (70 DMD) + 50% Wholecrop (2Tcrop) | 8.5kg Balancer gold 22.5% |
Allows for 0.3 BCS loss in early lactation
Poorer grain yielding crops could be used in dry cow diets but your cows will need a protein source to fill the protein deficit.
Example diets for dry cows, dried off in a condition score of 3:
| Grass Silage only | 50% Grass silage + 50% Wholecrop | ||||
| Grass Silage only | Kg (Fresh) | 50% Grass silage + 50% Wholecrop | Kg (Fresh) | 50% Grass silage + 50% Wholecrop | Kg (Fresh) |
| Grass silage (70 DMD) | 40 | Grass silage (70 DMD) | 15 | Grass silage (70 DMD) | 12 |
| Wholecrop (2T crop) | 15 | Wholecrop (4T crop) | 12 | ||
| Soya | 0.5 | Soya | 0.75 | ||
| Straw | 2 | ||||