**College chooses ADVANCE for Silage:**

6th December 2011

Bridgwater College in Somerset is situated in one of the foremost dairying counties in the country. Cannington Centre for Land Based Studies has a well-earned reputation as a centre of excellence where students gain knowledge and expertise to take to agricultural businesses and family dairy farms for which the West Country is famous.

Whilst the responsibility for student education falls to the head of land based studies, Jeremy Kerswell, running the farm and dairy unit is the responsibility of farms manager, Steve Jones.

The dairy unit based at Rodway Farm faces many of the same challenges as every dairy farm such as controlling costs, animal welfare, the needs of the environment and the price per litre of milk. Rodway Farm extends to about 400 acres consisting of 180 acres of grass, of which 70 is permanent pasture, 120 acres of forage maize and 100 acres of whole crop.

This supports a herd of 230 Holstein cows that is planned to rise to 250 calving through calving during the year plus followers. Average milk yield is 10,000 litres of which 2,800 litres are derived from home produced forage. Steve has set a target of 4,000 litres from forage and therefore quality and daily intake of forage is paramount and attention to detail essential.

The temporary grass at Rodway is Italian ryegrass with red clover and the wholecrop forage is wheat. Steve selects a variety of forage maize for its M.E. together with early maturity characteristics due to farm conditions and the cropping rotation implemented on this farm. According to Steve just growing and harvesting high quality forage is not the complete answer. The ensiled material that comes out of the clamp can be only as good as what went in. When Steve moved to Cannington 6 years ago he consulted Micron Bio-Systems who advised him to use crop specific silage inoculants from the Advance range. The Advance range has four different silage formulations: grass, maize, whole crop and legume.

Advance inoculants contain four key components formulated at specific levels and ratios to achieve the optimum effect on the forage crop treated.

Each product contains two strains of lactic acid bacteria, Pediococcus and Lactobacillus, which grow rapidly to dominate the natural occurring bacteria found on the forage. They work across the whole pH range producing lactic acid to drive the pH down to stabilise the silage by inhibiting spoilage bacteria and the plant’s natural protein degrading enzymes, thereby creating silage with minimum nutrient losses.

Advance inoculants also contain Lactobacillus brevis to improve silage stability through the production of acetic acid at the forage face to retard the growth of spoilage yeasts and moulds.

Innovation through science is key to Micron’s research and development activity. Working with Edinburgh University Micron has identified breakthrough enzymes that through their crop specific nature are able to improve digestibility up to 20%. This has been achieved because these enzymes are able to effectively separate the carbohydrate from the lignin in the fibre.

The combination of excellent farming practice and innovation through science has ensured that Bridgwater College’s Rodway Farm continues to provide its students and indeed its dairy herd with the latest possible technology.

Steve concluded, “We have observed and recorded that when the cows have been fed silage treated with Advance, intake increased by 10% resulting not only in higher milk yield but also improved butterfat and protein content”.