# Your silage test, explained: what Teagasc's DMD targets mean for your meal bill

*Published 2026-09-28 by FarmAI Ireland*

A silage test gives you seven numbers. The one that decides your winter meal bill is DMD. Teagasc puts the national average at about 66, and the target for milking cows and growing heifers at 72 or better. Six DMD points is roughly two kilos of meal a head a day on a finishing steer.

## Fewer than one farm in ten actually tests it

Teagasc reports that fewer than 10% of farms had tested their silage quality. The other nine were feeding on a guess.

You can tell a lot from a fistful of silage. You cannot tell whether it is 62 DMD or 72 DMD, and that gap is worth real money by March.

The national average on Irish farms sits around 66 DMD. The target for milking cows and growing heifers is at least 72. So the average pit in the country is already behind, and most farmers do not know by how much.

Five or six weeks after you sealed the pit, the fermentation has settled. That is the point where a silage test tells you something you can act on — before you have bought the winter's meal, not after.

## What do the numbers on a silage report actually mean?

A standard analysis comes back with seven lines. Here is what each one is telling you.

**DMD (dry matter digestibility)** — the proportion of the silage the animal can actually use. This is the one that matters. Teagasc's guide to reading the report sets targets by stock type. Autumn-calving cows and finishing animals need 75. Spring-calving cows and young breeding stock need 70. Suckler cows, 65. Its dairy guidance puts milking cows and growing heifers at 72 or better. Freshly calved winter milk cows want 75. Dry cows, 68 to 70. Anything at 70 or over is decent silage.

**Dry matter (DM %)** — how much of the sample is not water. Teagasc's DairyBeef 500 target is 28 to 32%. Higher dry matter generally means the animal eats more of it.

**pH** — the acidity, which tells you whether the pit will keep. Target is 3.8 to 4.2. Outside that, ask why before you worry about anything else on the page.

**Ammonia** — how much of the protein broke down in a bad fermentation. Under 10% is what you want. Over 15% and intakes drop, which means the animal eats less of a feed you already paid to make.

**Crude protein** — a direct read on how young the grass was when you cut it. Teagasc's DairyBeef 500 target is above 13.5% of dry matter. Young leafy grass runs high; stemmy June grass runs low.

**ME (metabolisable energy)** — usable energy per kilo of dry matter. Target is above 11 MJ/kg DM. It moves with DMD, so the two tell a similar story.

**Silage intake** — the lab's estimate of how much of this silage an animal will eat. Driven mostly by dry matter and ammonia.

## What is a DMD point actually worth?

This is where the report stops being a lab sheet and starts being a purchase order.

Teagasc's DairyBeef 500 factsheet sets out the concentrate needed to hit a target liveweight gain at three silage qualities. The numbers are blunt:

| Stock | 66 DMD | 72 DMD | 76 DMD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weanling, 0.6kg/day | 1.8kg | 0.9kg | 0.4kg |
| Finishing steer, 1kg/day | 7.0kg | 5.0kg | 4.0kg |

Read the finishing line again. Going from 66 DMD silage to 72 DMD silage takes two kilos a head a day off the meal bill for the same weight gain.

Over a 150-day winter, that is 300kg of ration per animal. On twenty finishing steers, six tonnes. Put your own merchant's current quote against that tonnage. Do not use a figure you read in July. Ration moves week to week.

The point is not that you can change your DMD now. The pit is made. The point is that one test tells you which of those columns you are feeding from, before you order.

## How do you take a sample that is worth paying for?

A silage test is only as good as the sample behind it. A bad sample is worse than no sample, because you will act on it.

Teagasc's method, for a pit:

1. Wait at least five to six weeks after ensiling. Sample sooner and you are testing an unfinished fermentation.
2. Take at least three full-depth cores from the top of the clamp, well spaced.
3. If sampling the face, go 6 to 9 inches in, in a W pattern across it. Skip anything mouldy or heated.
4. Discard the top few inches of each core, then mix the lot together on a clean board.
5. Split out about half a kilo into a clean plastic bag.
6. Fridge it until you post it, and avoid posting on a Friday. A sample sitting in a depot over a weekend is not the silage you made.

For bales, take one sample every five to ten bales with a corer. Different cuts, different fields and different days all make different silage.

**Sample each pit and each batch separately.** A first-cut pit and a bale stack from a headland in August are two different feeds. Blending them into one sample gives you a number that describes neither.

Your local Teagasc office can arrange the test and has the long core sampler. Most farmers do not own one, and a spade sample is not the same thing.

## What does a silage test cost in Ireland?

IAS Laboratories listed a silage feed evaluation at €42.81 when we checked on 17 September 2026. It covers dry matter, pH, ammonia, protein, ME, DMD and intake. Teagasc offices, feed companies and several independent labs all run the same service, so ring around.

Set that against six tonnes of ration on a twenty-steer shed and the arithmetic is not close.

If you have not done the tonnage side yet, our [winter fodder budget walkthrough](/read/winter-fodder-budget-2026) covers measuring the pit and counting the stock. The test tells you the quality; that one tells you the quantity. You need both, and [this year's county fodder figures](/read/winter-fodder-shortage-2026-teagasc-numbers) are the reason the quality half matters more than usual.

## Where can AI actually help with this?

The report is a page of numbers with no instructions. Turning it into a feeding plan is arithmetic you can hand over.

Type the seven figures into your AI assistant. Add your own detail: stock numbers, type, target daily gain, housing date, turnout date, and the silage tonnage you measured. Then ask it for kilos of concentrate per group per day, and total tonnes for the winter. Ask it to show every step of the arithmetic.

That last bit is not optional. Check the sums yourself — the whole point is that you can, because the steps are in front of you.

**Where it falls down:**

- It has no idea whether your sample was representative. Feed it a number from a bad sample and it will build you a confident plan on sand.
- It will happily mix up ME, UFL and UFV, which are three different energy systems. Tell it which one your report uses.
- It does not know your shed, your grass, or that the heifers are behind. It does arithmetic, not judgement.
- Minerals, vaccination and anything veterinary are not its call, and not ours either. That is your vet and your Teagasc advisor.

Use it the way you would use [Met Éireann data for cutting decisions](/read/met-eireann-weather-ai-silage-timing). It reads something you already have, faster. It does not produce new facts.

## Where the test itself falls down

It is a snapshot of one composite sample. A pit is not uniform. The bottom is compacted, the shoulders are often poorer, and the face changes as you eat into it through the winter.

It also measures the silage as it sat in the pit, not as it goes into the animal. If the face is heating in February, the feed the stock get is not the feed the lab saw in October.

And it tells you nothing about what you should have done differently. Harvest date is the biggest lever on DMD, and that decision was made back in May.

## Frequently asked questions

**When should I test silage, and is September too late?**
Five to six weeks after ensiling is the earliest useful point, so a late-May or June first cut is well ready by mid-September. Testing now is the right time, not a late one — you want the result before you commit to a winter ration order, not after.

**Is it worth testing bales as well as the pit?**
Yes, if you are feeding them to stock with a real performance target. Bales from different fields and cuts vary widely, and Teagasc advises one sample per five to ten bales. If the bales are only going to dry suckler cows, one test on the pit may be enough for your purposes.

**My silage came back at 64 DMD. What do I do now?**
Nothing about the pit, but plenty about the plan. Feed the best silage to the stock with the highest demand: finishing cattle and freshly calved cows. The poorer silage goes to dry suckler cows, who Teagasc puts at 65 DMD anyway. Then budget the concentrate from the table above rather than from last winter's habit. Your Teagasc advisor will build the ration with you.

## The bottom line

Get a core sample tested before you order the winter's meal. A six-point DMD gap is two kilos a head a day on finishing cattle. You cannot see that by eye.

Ring your local Teagasc office for the core sampler. Sample each pit and each batch on its own. Keep the result beside you when the merchant rings.

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## Sources

- [Teagasc — Understanding the Silage Test Results](https://teagasc.ie/publications/understanding-the-silage-test-results-php/) — Teagasc's line-by-line guide to the report. Source of the pH 3.8–4.2 target, the ammonia thresholds, and the DMD targets by stock type quoted here
- [Teagasc — Taking a Silage Sample](https://www.teagasc.ie/news--events/daily/grassland/taking-a-silage-sample.php) — Source of the sampling method: the 5–6 week wait, three full-depth cores, the W pattern on the face, bale sampling rate, and the posting advice
- [Teagasc DairyBeef 500 — Silage Quality and Concentrate Supplementation](https://teagasc.ie/animals/beef/dairy-calf-to-beef/dairybeef-500/dairybeef-500-factsheets/silage-quality-and-concentrate-supplementation/) — Source of the concentrate feeding rates at 66, 72 and 76 DMD for weanlings and finishing steers, and the winter liveweight gain targets
- [Teagasc — Assessing silage quantity and quality](https://www.teagasc.ie/news--events/daily/dairy/assessing-silage-quantity-and-quality.php) — Source of the national average DMD of about 66, the 72 DMD target for milking cows and growing heifers, and the finding that fewer than 10% of farms had tested
- [Teagasc — Silage testing: the starting point in making winter gains](https://teagasc.ie/news--events/daily/silage-testing-the-starting-point-in-making-winter-gains/) — Tommy Cox, Teagasc DairyBeef 500 Campaign Advisor, 2 October 2024. Source of the ME, crude protein and dry matter targets
- [IAS Laboratories — Silage Feed Evaluation (F1)](https://iaslabs.ie/product/silage-analysis/) — An Irish commercial lab's listed silage analysis, used here for the parameter list and the price quoted as at 17 September 2026

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*Source: [FarmAI Ireland](https://farmai.ie/read/silage-test-results-explained-dmd-meal-bill)*