That’s the view of Manawatu Dairy Farmer James Anderson, who used the new MAGNIVA® Classic inoculant on his grass silage for the first time.
Five years ago, James never treated his grass silage with anything. “I always treated my maize, but never my grass” he says. However, in recent years he decided there was an opportunity to get more milk from his grass silage.
“The grass was really wet when it came in, around 25% dry matter. It was a challenging season for drying down grass” says James. Despite this, the silage treated with MAGNIVA® Classic tested really well, “I think it saved it to be honest,” said James. “To hit a pH of 3.7 on that kind of grass was very surprising. And the cows have loved it, which is the most important thing”.
James Anderson, with his Autumn herd which are performing above expectations.
According to Nutritech’s forage specialist Nadine Olsen, “This pasture silage could have had a very poor fermentation thanks to the low dry matter and high ash content which indicates there was some soil contamination. Soil is a major risk for clostridial spoilage which degrades quality proteins and can make the silage highly unpalatable” she says. Nadine agrees with James, “The MAGNIVA® Classic has done an exceptional job of protecting this silage, it really could have been a bad situation”. She adds “To see a low pH, high lactic acid levels and low ammonia N concentrations really shows the value of inoculating pasture silage”.
Cow health, productivity and wellbeing are top priority for the Andersons.
Having used Nutritech’s Sil-All®4×4+ for four years, and this last season MAGNIVA® Classic, he has been really impressed with how it has gone. “I’ll keep using it every year now” he says. When asked why, he simply responded “Because it works”.
Anderson’s Autumn Herd.
Farming with his parents Sandra and Richard and milking 1200 cows, silage is everything to their farming business, which relies on grass and maize silage for winter milking as well as summer feed. “With 165Ha of grass and 105Ha of maize to come in this 2024/25 season, every gain in quality in we make to our silage programme starts to add up” says James.
2024 maize harvest.
The Anderson family are squarely focussed on improving cow health and productivity. Along with continued genetic improvements to their herd, they regularly use Nutritech’s Diet Check evaluations to ensure nutritionally everything is balanced for each herd. “Now that we have hit some big production goals, we are more about cow efficiency, health and productivity” says James. “We know that we need our pasture and silage base to be as high quality as it can be, supplements are then the icing on the cake. Everything must work together to get the best outcome” he says.
James Anderson, always focussed on silage quality.
In addition to treating all silages with the MAGNIVA® range of inoculants, they are regular users of Levucell®SC live yeast. According to Nadine, “this further improves what their cows can get out of pasture and silages. Levucell®SC live yeast has consistently proven it increases fibre (NDF) digestibility”.
She concludes “It has been a really enjoyable working with the Anderson family, to see what their cows are capable of when we feed them clean, hygienic silage and create a healthy rumen to make the most of it”.
Ruminant and Forage Technical Services Manager Nadine Olsen regularly checks silage quality when visiting the Anderson’s Manawatu dairy farm.
To find out more about MAGNIVA® Classic inoculant click here or contact your local Nutritech Area Manager.
