12 May 2025
Listen: Quality and Quantity – Paul Hyland’s approach to silage
Paul Hyland, who farms with his brother David near the village of Ballacolla, Co. Laois, joins Stuart Childs on this week’s Dairy Edge to discuss silage – both quantity and quality.
Aiming to provide 4-5 bales of quality silage to feed cows in the autumn and again in the springtime, the Hylands also aim to have a July reserve at hand for any dry weather at that time of year.
On the podcast, Paul discusses how they cut covers of 2,500-3,000kg DM/ha, baling out at 4-5 bales per acre ideally, until they have the reserve they need and then they will focus on main crop silage.
Interestingly, the Hylands always split their fertiliser applications to give themselves options with silage ground. Additionally, they plan silage, targeting to cut younger, more recently reseeded ground for the quality silage.
Finally, Paul explains how the frequent cutting system that they employ on their farm delivers the same quantity of silage at the end of the year, but of far better quality than big bulky crops.
Listen in below: