E and F Linehan farm within only a few miles of Cork city centre. Based near Glanmire, the family milk a herd of Holstein Friesian cows on a liquid milk contract. Producing high quality forage for grazing and silage is a key aim for the Linehan family.
Focus has been on reseeding for the last number of years, with a number of fields being reseeded with Green Acres Mega Bite plus Red clover mixture in 2019. These fields are now yielding approximately 14 tonnes of dry matter per hectare (t/DM ha) versus older swards on the farm that are doing about 10 tonnes of dry matter per hectare (t/DM ha).
According to the Linehan’s “Green Acres Mega Bite Mixture has allowed us to push up our cow numbers simply by growing more grass and using better varieties. Our aim is to continue reseeding over the next number of years.”
There is a large emphasis on feed quality on the Linehan farm. Paddocks are taken out for silage where they get ‘strong’ during the year (>1800 kg DM ha). Silage bales were removed from paddocks sown with ‘Mega Bite plus Red Clover’ in 2019. Analysis of these bales further demonstrates the benefit of reseeding, with Dry Matter Digestibility (DMD) measuring 77% and with an ME value of 11.5 MJ/kg. In production terms this equates to an additional 1.2-1.5 litres per day in milk yield per cow versus 70% DMD silage.
Green Acres Mega Bite grass seed mixture is an intensive silage mixture designed to produce multiple high yielding, quality silage cuts. All grass varieties in this mixture are ‘intermediate heading’ – this means they go from a vegetative to reproductive state earlier than ‘later heading’ varieties. Simply put, these grasses will try to produce a seed head earlier in the year and subsequently produce more Dry Matter early in the season. Red or white clover can be added to any Green Acres mixture to suit your individual requirements.
NB: Aim to cut for silage 5 – 10 days before average heading date for optimum quality.
Average heading date is 28th May.
*(T) denotes Tetraploid.