Care needed to balance straw-based rations
Straw could be used to help stretch silage stocks this autumn and winter as farmers deal with reduced forage availability. Dairy Farmer reports.
In many part of the country, 2025 has been a challenging forage-growing season.
While in some regions of the country there are ample forage stocks, elsewhere shortages are a real concern.
In cases where forage is limited, dairy farmers are being advised to make plans now to minimise the impact of changes on production over the winter.
Dr Phil Holder, from molasses liquid blends specialists ED&F Man, emphasises that making small changes sooner will be more beneficial than major changes later in the season.
He says: “Cows perform at their best on a consistent diet and it can take the rumen up to two weeks to adapt to a significant change in ration composition, so it is best to avoid major sudden changes.
“Adopting a strategy of hoping forage stocks will be adequate and then having to implement major changes will be less effective than facing up to the situation as soon as possible, so that the diet can remain as unchanged as possible throughout the winter.”
With grass silage cuts largely taken and maize crops harvested, he advises that it is imperative to carry out a stock check of forages in the clamp.
He stresses the sooner this is done, and there is a realistic picture of how stocks relate to expected requirements, the easier it will be to plan how to manage the situation.
He says: “Once you know the forage available, you can compare this to what you need to identify any shortfall.
“Then you will be in a position to plan how to tailor rations to meet this shortfall most effectively. It might be that you feed less forage to all cows throughout the winter.
Prioritise
“Alternatively you might decide to prioritise silage, particularly the better-quality material, to fresh calved cows, cutting silage to later lactation animals.
“Finally it might be an option to exclude silage altogether from dry cow and youngstock rations.
“But the sooner you start planning, the more effective the changes will be.”
One option to help stretch silage stocks will be straw, with every kilogramme of straw able to replace 4-5kg of silage depending on silage dry matter, although Dr Holder stresses that straw alone will not fully replace silage.
He says: “While straw will produce fibre and bulk, it is low in many key nutrients.
“It is lower in metabolisable energy than silages and, in addition, straw-based rations need to be carefully balanced in terms of protein, specifically rumen degradable protein. The key to replacing silage with straw is maximising intakes and digestibility and promoting high levels of rumen microbial activity.
Dr Holder says molasses-based liquid feeds can help overcome the shortfalls when feeding straw.
He explains that molasses contains sugars and numerous organic acids. The sugar fraction is a blend of different sugars including sucrose and glucose which are the important six-carbon sugars.
These are proven to be more beneficial to dairy cows being more highly rumen fermentable, increasing microbial protein production and stimulating rumen fungi to improve fibre digestion.
