Cattle Haylage Production

Award outcome

Description

Production of hay, haylage and silage from our own land for feeding our cattle herd in winter. As one of its core activities The City of London grazes Epping Forest and its surrounding lands utilising a herd of pedigree Longhorn cattle. During the winter the cattle are housed at Great Gregories Farm where the cows will calve inside buildings. When ground conditions are favourable in the spring the cattle will then go out to graze. Currently the herd size is 200+ with plans to increase this year on year, currently we require at least 1100 bales a year from our own lands to feed the herd through the winter months. Silage, haylage and hay needs to be cut at different times of year in order to preserve enough feed for the cattle and to meet the conservation needs of our grassland sites. In order to reduce plastics, we plan to cut at least 120 bales as hay (unwrapped) and store undercover at the farm. Most of the grasslands are unimproved and receive no fertiliser, they yield on average 10-15 bales a Ha. We are undertaking a tender process to appoint a contractor to produce our winter feed over a 5 year period. We are having a purpose built hay shed erect June 2024 as move to having more bales made as hay (un-wrapped) The appointed contractor will be expected to carry out the whole process. This will include: Liaising with the Grazing and Landscape Manager on cutting dates Ensuring cutting times and wilting duration are used to produce the best quality forage possible Mowing, tedding, raking, baling, wrapping, transporting to Great Gregories Farm and stacking. Bales to be stacked no higher than 3 bales high. Any damage or splits to bales during stacking to be rectified with silage tape. All bales should be carted from the field within 72 hours except for Whitehall Plain / Birbeck, North Farm, Warlies and Monkhams which will need to be transported the same day due to a history of vandalism and arson in previous years

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