Among the many options for replacing silage, feeding straw is probably the most widespread. This fact sheet aims to help you get the most successful results for your farm by explaining straws limitations and showing you a number of ways to overcome them. Despite being relatively unpalatable, indigestible and low in protein, straw is an excellent base for ruminant diets where silage is unavailable. It is an excellent source of long fibre and there are a number of ways of improving both animal intakes and their utilisation of straw, and making it into an effective substitute for silage.
