Winter Crops Resources

The ‘Winter cereals for silage’ fact sheet outlines the advantages and disadvantages of winter cereals over annual ryegrass. It also includes information on how winter cereals fit into a feed plan, sowing mixes and silage making tips. Top tips include:

• Nutritive value of cereal silage is generally not as good as annual ryegrass.
• Cereal can be grazed 1–2 times in early winter before lock-up for silage.
• Cereals are more water efficient than ryegrass.
• Cut cereal silage at boot stage to maximise quality.

The 'Fitting winter crops into your grazing system' fact sheet provides useful advice on integrating winter cereals into the feedbase. These include:

• To identify a suitable winter crop, you must know your monthly feed demand.
• Winter cereals generally provide quicker, early-autumn feed than ryegrass.
• Cereals are often more suited to areas with low autumn feed than ryegrass.
• Cereals can be a good risk management tool to diversify the feedbase.