New technologies to monitor and improve silage quality from field to feed-out.

The success of the automated livestock farm using new technologies will be enhanced if similar robust technological approaches for silage production can be developed and implemented but it is essential that these technologies provide accurate and useful information to enable the forage manager to adapt the system from field to feed-out to account for the unforeseen variables such as weather and climate that can vary year to year. Thus the monitoring and feedback technologies reviewed here need to be robust, cost effective and provide rapid information in an easily digestible form for the forage manager to make decisions on factors from: field crop nutrition and growth yields, optimal harvesting time through to harvesting and ensiling quality, finishing with feed-out quality and monitoring of aerobic deterioration. If successful, this will help ensure that the highest quality silage is being consumed and utilised within the most precisely formulated TMR by the livestock on each farm utilising such approaches.