Nigel Vickery - 10055 Loader Wagon

With an organic dairy herd, the emphasis on producing high quality, high dry matter silage, is centre to milk production for Somerset producer Nigel Vickery. From Marksbarn Farm, Crewkerne, Mr Vickery is looking to extract the maximum amount of value from grass silage, to keep 250 cows delivering a herd average of 7500 litres.

“With an organic operation, the only way to deliver yield is to make the best possible silage quality,” he says. “And that means going back to basics, to focus on quality grass silage production to give our cows the best possible forage they can have,” he says.

That philosophy has seen a local contractor’s self-propelled forager service replaced by a Kverneland-Taarup 10055R forage wagon, with full control of silage making taken in-house.

Mr Vickery now has total flexibility when it comes to harvesting grass, plus the option of zero grazing to put late season grass directly in front of the cows. And where silage used to cost £55/acre to produce, his production costs have more than halved.

“We now mow and harvest grass at a time when the crop is ready, rather than aiming for a date or waiting for enough bulk,” says Mr Vickery. “We’re making much higher quality silage - last year’s first cut had an ME value in excess of 12.” As the season progresses, the Marksbarn Farm team will cut a 200-acre block, four times, giving enough of the right quality silage for the herd.

“We often mow grass in 100 acre blocks – which is two days’ work - and use our 140hp New Holland 6070 tractor on the wagon,” he says. “It has plenty of power and with air brakes, it has the ability to safely handle each load.”

He also says the process affords plenty of time for the clamp to receive more attention and highly effective consolidation.

 “The conveyor system makes it easy to unload when the wagon comes back to the clamp, and this also loosens the grass, making it easier to ensile in shallow, even layers,” he says.

Knife sharpening takes place every day, ahead of picking up grass, and Mr Vickery says this is crucial to cow intake, but the process needs to be easier and faster to carry out. “We like a short chop length, so keeping blades sharp is essential,” he says.

Drawbacks of the system are few and far between. “We have the labour, the time and the equipment,” he says. “If our grass fields weren’t so close, then travelling times would hamper our output.”

“But I believe we’ve now got a cost-effective system that gives us the quality grass that our organic operation needs,” he says. “And we can see the results in our milk yield and quality.”