In this episode, we catch up with Dan Parnell, Regional Extension Officer at Western Dairy, and Borden farmer Paul O’Meehan to delve into the world of silage.
Silage isn’t widely used in the Wheatbelt, but Paul has been growing and utilising it near Borden for many years, and opened one pit after 5 years.
Dan, a consultant, delivers TopFodder workshops, which focus on producing high-quality silage and hay. Recently, he has been doing this work through a project funded by the Future Drought Fund titled “Better Making and Use of Hay and Silage – Mitigating drought and season variability effects for WA’s livestock industry”.
Through this project, the TopFodder program is used to upskill dairy, beef and sheep producers in WA on successfully making, storing and feeding silage. The project enables these producers to improve the quality of traditionally produced hay, which will further improve the quality feed for their stock in times of drought.
Episode links
Successful Silage (TopFodder) Manual – Dairy Australia
For TopFodder workshops, contact Western Beef:
Western Beef website: westernbeef.org.au
Jeisane Accioly: 0403 327 216 or jeisane.alis@gmail.com
Dan Parnell: dan.parnell@westerndairy.com.au
