Pasture silage
30% dry matter, 10.5 MJ of metabolisable energy per kg of dry matter, 16% crude protein and 50% fibre (NDF) — the cited reference values behind our calculators.
Also called grass silage, pit silage.
Composition
Energy is MJ ME per kg of dry matter. Everything else is a percentage of dry matter.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Dry matter | 30% |
| Energy (ME) | 10.5 MJ/kg DM |
| Crude protein | 16% |
| Fibre (NDF) | 50% |
| Starch | 1% |
| Sugar | 3% |
| Fat | 4% |
Macro-minerals, % of dry matter
- Calcium
- 0.8%
- Phosphorus
- 0.3%
- Magnesium
- 0.21%
- Sodium
- 0.1%
- Potassium
- 2.3%
- Sulphur
- 0.24%
Chloride is left out on purpose: standard lab digestion doesn't recover it, so published feed tables leave it blank and ours would be an estimate. A mineral left out here is one the source table didn't report — not a measured zero.
Where these numbers come from
DairyNZ Facts & Figures Ch.5, “Pasture silage, good”; Feedipedia grass silage broadly agrees.
Silage quality moves a long way with cut and fermentation — a test of your own pit is worth more than any table.
What it costs
Cents per megajoule is the figure that actually ranks feeds, because it is the only one that accounts for both water and energy density — a cheap wet feed and an expensive dry one can land in the same place. These prices are indicative starting points from mid-2026, not quotes: they move with region, volume and season, and every one of them is editable in the calculator.
Making and storing it
The loss is what goes missing between the standing crop and the feed-out face, so a tonne cut is not a tonne fed. The cost to make is the contractor and operating cost of the tonne that survives — which is what makes a make-versus-buy comparison honest. Bale weights vary with the baler, the crop and how wet it went in; the figure here is the library default the calculator starts from, and it is editable.
How it compares
Other forages in the library, ordered by how close they sit to Pasture silage on energy.
| Feed | DM % | ME | Protein | Fibre | c/MJ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pasture silagethis page | 30 | 10.5 | 16% | 50% | 3.2c |
| Maize silage | 35 | 10.5 | 7% | 45% | 3.3c |
| Baleage (pasture) | 45 | 10 | 14% | 52% | 2.9c |
| Pasture (NZ spring midpoint) | 16.6 | 11 | 21% | 44% | — |
| Plantain | 14 | 11 | 19% | 35% | — |
A dash under c/MJ means the feed isn't bought — grazed pasture and standing crops carry no purchase price, and showing them at zero would read as free.
Does it feed the animal?
A composition on its own can't tell you that. Open the calculator with Pasture silage added to the diet, set your stock and how much of it they're getting, and it will tell you what the diet actually supports — and which of energy, protein or gut fill runs out first.
Feedwise gives indicative models for decision support. It is not a substitute for a nutritionist or veterinarian — for animal-health decisions, talk to your vet.