Prediction of silage intake – current knowledge and future approaches

Grass silage forms the basal forage for the vast majority of dairy and beef cattle in Ireland, the U.K. and the Nordic countries. However, the chemical composition of silages produced on farm in these countries varies dramatically due to the impact of many factors including sward type, fertiliser application, harvesting and ensiling management, additive treatment, period of storage, fermentation process etc. Given this variation, it is critical to know both the metabolisable energy (ME) concentration and the intake potential of silage offered to cattle to enable the producer to provide the correct level of concentrate supplementation to achieve the optimum level of animal performance. The prediction of the ME concentration of the silage has been possible for some time, however the prediction of intake potential of silage by beef and dairy cattle has eluded researchers until recently. In the past thirty years many studies have been undertaken to determine the factors influencing silage intake with initial studies producing multifactor relationships to predict intake. However, the accuracy of these relationship