When John Kelly does something, he does it right.
So, it was no surprise when the Euroa cattle farmer and silage contractor opened two-year-old silage bales that were fresh and solid.
“It’s as good as the day we put it in there, and that’s the way it should be,” he said.
“If you look after silage, and store it, you can get it to last two to two-and-a-half or three years — that’s if you put six layers on. That might be what gets you through a drought year, it’s back-up.”
John and Mary Kelly — with children Shaun, Michael, Clare and Jack — operate Kellybrook Angus in Victoria’s north-east, running 200 to 300 breeders.
They also make 4000 to 6000 rolls of silage a year as part of their contracting business. Up to 600 are kept for their own use.
John has been wrapping silage for nearly 30 years and has firm views on what constitutes “good silage”.
“When you are feeding it should be sweet smelling,” he said.
“It shouldn’t stain your hands; it also shouldn’t be slimy and there shouldn’t be mould.”
Using six layers — “stretched on tight” — of Tama Australia’s Silotite silage wrap is part of John’s stringent silage production practice.
“With only four layers, there’s no way I could go out to these two-year-old bales now and see them still so good,” he said.
“Silage bales are so worthwhile to me; they can be worth $65 to $80 dollars each.
“I’ve experimented with other wrap and that’s why I’ve came back to Silotite. I’ve proved to myself it will last and do the job.”
John also inoculates all silage, while his harvest process takes two to three days and includes the use of a rotary rake — to avoid dirt and dust in the windrow — and tedding.
He said tedding was essential to ensure an even distribution of moisture throughout the windrow and enable faster baling and wrapping.
Cutting the crop for silage at 150mm to 200mm high also ensures the windrow is not sitting on the ground.
John said this meant it feeds better through machines, is a better quality feed and promotes regrowth.
Tama’s regional technical manager Darrell Butler has also helped John produce “the best possible silage”.
John said his assistance was valuable across the entire process, from buying the right machine to making sure the silage wrap stretch is correct and each bale has the right cover.
But silage is so much more than quality feed for the Kelly family.
They use the stored fodder as a pasture management tool, drought buffer and vehicle to deliver powdered magnesium to livestock to avoid the fatal grass tetany disease.
Feeding silage to cows and calves over winter saves pasture pugging and enables the establishment of a spring feed wedge.
“If a cow has a good feed of silage today, she is going to be very kind on the pasture for a day,” John said.
“If they are hungry, they are going to walk around the paddock and if it is wet, they are going to bog it, and walk half the grass into the ground.
“So, if you give them a feed, you have saved one day of grass and that benefit is very hard to measure.”
Silage production also enables the Kelly family to make the most of spring rain.
John said making silage was better for the regrowth of their phalaris, rye and clover pastures than hay.
“If you do silage in September and then you get spring rain, you can recut it if you want or graze it.
“That regrowth is worth a lot; how do you value that?”
Drought is also never far from John’s mind. It wasn’t so long ago he had to make tough decisions to scale back his herd after years of dry conditions.
He knows fodder stores will give him options — regardless of the season.
“We’ve got a big dam out there now and we would like to put silage under a dam bank.
“I’d like to get 600 under the dirt bank. While some say to only put two layers on it, it might be there for 20 years, so what’s a few more dollars?
“If you are going to all that expense and effort, you may as well make it good and worthwhile.”