A short survey of key silage-making practices on Northern Ireland dairy farms, and farmer perceptions of factors influencing silage quality
dc.contributor.author | Ferris, C.P. | |
dc.contributor.author | Laidlaw, A.S. | |
dc.contributor.author | Wylie, A.R.G. | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2023-03-21T11:49:20Z | |
dc.date.available | 2023-03-21T11:49:20Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2022-11-07 | |
dc.identifier.citation | C.P. Ferris, A.S. Laidlaw and A.R.G. Wylie. A short survey of key silage-making practices on Northern Ireland dairy farms, and farmer perceptions of factors influencing silage quality. Irish Journal of Agricultural and Food Research. 2022. DOI: 10.15212/ijafr-2022-0103 | en_US |
dc.identifier.issn | 2009-9029 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11019/2925 | |
dc.description | peer-reviewed | en_US |
dc.description.abstract | Northern Ireland dairy farmers (n = 174) were surveyed to identify key silage-making practices, and factors perceived to influence the quality of grass silage made on their farms. The majority of farmers (65%) harvested grass for silage three times/year: 62% normally used a contractor, while 47% routinely used a silage additive. Delays to mowing and delays to harvesting due to adverse weather or poor ground conditions were perceived to have a large or very large impact on silage quality (68% and 53% of farmers, respectively). Inadequate wilting, poor-quality swards on owned land, on rented land and “contamination” of first-cut grass with autumn or winter growth herbage were all perceived as having a large or very large impact on silage quality (32%, 27%, 40%, 30% of farmers, respectively). Over the previous decade, 11%, 41% and 37% of farmers claimed a small, moderate or large improvement in silage quality, mainly due to earlier cutting of grass and ensiling better quality swards. | en_US |
dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
dc.publisher | Teagasc | en_US |
dc.relation.ispartofseries | Irish Journal of Agricultural and Food Research; | |
dc.rights | Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International | * |
dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ | * |
dc.subject | grass silage quality | en_US |
dc.subject | Farmer perceptions | en_US |
dc.subject | survey | en_US |
dc.title | A short survey of key silage-making practices on Northern Ireland dairy farms, and farmer perceptions of factors influencing silage quality | en_US |
dc.type | Article | en_US |
dc.identifier.doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.15212/ijafr-2022-0103 | |
refterms.dateFOA | 2023-03-21T11:49:21Z | |
dc.source.journaltitle | Irish Journal of Agricultural and Food Research | |
dc.identifier.eissn | 0791-6833 | |
dc.identifier.eissn | 2009-9029 |
Files in this item
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
-
IJAFR volume 61, 2022 [27]
Irish Journal of Agricultural and Food Research, volume 61, 2022