Silage
There are many ways to feed your life stock, one of which is by using silage that has been harvested and stored. Not only can this be a ready source of food it is also one of the cheapest ways to feed your herd. Silage can also reduce the dependency on the availability and escalating costs of brought in feeds. By producing silage locally, you will have better control over the quality of the feed, which in turns insures that your life stock will have a better diet with improved health and fertility.
Silage is typically made from crops such as corn, barley, oats, grass etc which is cut, wilted (if possible) and then gathered and placed in a pit of some description where it is compacted and then covered over. The whole process produces silage after the bacteria in the cut crop ferments the sugars turning it into lactic acid which then preserves the nutrients. The key element to providing good silage is to maximize the level of nutrients within the cut crop.
Tips and Advice
Preparation
Before attempting any of the below steps it is crucial that you have the appropriate equipment and personnel in place ready for the process. Preparations should also insure that the silage pit is clear and drainage holes free of old debris. Machinery should be checked and serviced if required. New plastic sheeting needs to be ordered or old stock inspected for holes and repaired if possible using suitable patches. This is a busy time of year for farm workers, so you may need to book additional agricultural contractors in plenty of time to avoid shortage of farm hands.
Step 1 - Cutting
Perhaps the most important part of cutting is to pick a time suitable for efficient harvesting. You should be aiming to cut silage crops before the seed heads have appeared which ought to give you a good balance of quantity and quality of silage. If you cut after the seed heads have appeared, then this will result in a lower digestibility of the grass. Another consideration is the weather, after rain should you cut when the crop is standing? Research has shown that rain wets a standing crop much more than a cut crop, however a standing crop will dry out much faster than a cut crop, so you’ll need to weigh out the options depending on the forecast.
Step 2 - Wilting
To optimise fermentation, spread out the crop as soon as possible and ideally let it wilt for 24 hours. Wilting allows the cut crop to minimise the potential loss of any sugar. A tedder or mower conditioner should be used to speed up the wilting process. Using a tedder on the crop will increase the wilting rate but repeated teddering has been shown to have minimal effect. If you leave the crop to wilt for longer than 24 hours, then you’ll start to lose valuable nutrients/sugar in the crop. Each type of crop will have an optimal moisture level to harvest at to produce the best silage. One note to point out: when using a tedder or mower-conditioner ensure that the equipment does not drag on the ground, as any unwanted bacteria in the soil will spoil the silage, especially if slurry has been applied to the crop.
Step 3 - Harvesting
Chop length is key. If the length is too long, then it will be difficult to squeeze all of the oxygen out. The length of the chop also depends on the crop itself. Using a forager will cut the crop and force feed it into a separate trailer via a long tall spout. Once again, the forager should be checked over before foraging starts and any broken or blunt blades replaced. If you own a New Holland FX forager then our sister site FXForagerParts.co.uk offers quality parts at fantastic prices for your FX machine. Once the silage has been collected it should be taken to the silage pit straight away.
Step 4 - Clamping
Packing down or clamping, encourages the fermentation process and removes any unwanted oxygen from the crop. To avoid oxygen pockets forming you should roll the crop as soon as it is tipped, minimising the amount of time that the crop is exposed to the air. Oxygen spoils the silage by allowing aerobic bacteria to turn the crop into a dark coloured slush which is totally unsuitable for animal feed. A compact tractor is better suited to rolling out the crop with a bucket attached to the front for laying the crop out. Ideally layers should be about 15cm deep before the next one is placed on top. An additional step may be added before clamping down by applying a treatment to the silage to help control the fermentation process.
Step 5 – Covering
A good oxygen barrier sheet should be used to fully seal the pit. The covering should then be weighted down, most farmers use old tyres as they are easy to move around and do not have sharp edges that could puncture the sheeting. If a hole does appear then this should be repaired straight away as a small hole can easily turn into a huge rip with the help of strong winds. Keeping the clamp sealed is important for the reason mentioned above (extra oxygen spoils the silage). Ensure drains and gullies are cleaned and that effluent tanks are empty and ready to collect fresh effluent that should be disposed of correctly.
Step 6 – Feeding
The silage should be ready for cattle feed after 2-3 weeks which should give the enough time for the fermentation process to work, but a longer duration is also fine. Try to avoid cutting away too much feed from the pit face to reduce excessive spoilage or secondary heating.
Silage Equipment
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