Choosing Between Hay and Silage as a Weed Management Option

Title: Choosing Between Hay and Silage as a Weed Management Option

Issue	Hay	Silage
Prevention of viable seed addition to the weed seedbank in the paddock	Similarly effective, assuming no target weeds seed production has occurs before the cut and regrowth is controlled to prevent further weed seed production
Potential for weed seeds to be spread to other areas during feed out.	Moderate to high	Low if properly ensiled
Potential for regrowth	Depends on growth stage of weed at time of cut
Feasibility	Depends on the scale of the operation, livestock enterprises within the business, distance to end-use point and demand for the product

Silage production, and to a lesser extent hay making, can be used to manage weeds by:

Reducing the viable seed-set of target weeds
Removing viable weed seeds so that they are not added to the soil seedbank.

Introduced hay or silage has the potential to transport weed seeds. Feeding out in dedicated areas is advised to allow for monitoring and control of any germinated weeds. Hay in particular has the potential to contain high proportions of viable weed seed if it has been cut when weeds have already set seed.

Consider the balance of using hay or silage as a weed management tactic with other farm enterprises. A balance between fodder quality and weed management benefit should be considered, as the cut that best controls weed seed-set may not produce the best quality fodder. Cutting too late can result in a significant reduction in feed quality and digestibility of the hay or silage.

Whole-Farm Considerations

Hay and silage production are better suited to farms with a livestock enterprise. However, there is a limit to the area of pasture or crop that can be cut for hay or silage simply because too much of either can create an over-supply problem.
Because hay portability is much better than silage, hay is preferred when the product must be transported to a market.

Article: CulturalWeedControl181 (permalink)
Date: 9 January 2013; 8:01:48 PM AEDT

Author Name: Zheljana Peric
Author ID: zper12