The ability to make quality silage has allowed Justin Cook, Rockview Station, Scone, to feed right up until now, with 100 bales of silage left going into the winter.

When Justin Cook, "Rockview Station", Scone, decided to enrol in a Topfodder Silage course, he could not have known the knowledge would carry him through one of the toughest summers and autumns in the Hunter Valley.

His idea was to use the silage as a production feed to get some liveweight gain rather than just maintain body weight.

Like other producers who have attended the course, he found he was able to make better quality silage quicker than ever before - which has ensured excellent animal production.

And in a difficult season like last spring, when so much hay and silage was spoiled, the results are even more impressive, according to NSW DPI district agronomist, Neil Griffiths, who co-ordinates Topfodder silage training throughout NSW.

"A dry start to 2006 meant Justin had to start feeding 398 steers in the first week of January," Mr Griffiths said.

"After 100 days of nothing but silage, the top 98 sold with an average weight of 560 kilograms."

"While some were too fat, it’s a good result in a drought.

"The remaining 300 steers averaged weight gains of 0.7 to 0.8 kilograms per day while on the silage and were due to be sold at the end of April."

Last spring, Mr Cook cut 40 hectares of triticale at the boot stage of growth and 40 hectares of barley at head emergence.

"At first it was taking five days to wilt before baling but when they started using a tedder to spread the forage, wilting time was reduced to just over two days," Mr Griffiths said.

"In the end he successfully made 1013 round bales of silage averaging 700kg each, a good result in early September.

"It’s even better when you consider both samples tested at more than 11 megajoules of metabolisable energy per kilogram of dry matter."

While the steers started well on the silage, Mr Cook took note of the warning from Topfodder about wastage levels when feeding out and found that using feed rings reduced his losses by 30 per cent.