Best practices in silage : how to reduce losses and increase silage quality

AUTHOR : Tim BREWER, Managing Director, SILOSTOP
Silage is growing in importance worldwide as farms increase in size and technical efficiency. Losses can occur at every stage of the harvesting process and storage, which can be rectified by implementing good practices. The following article summarises best-practice silage making, from crop cutting to feed-out. By starting with high quality crops and following these guidelines, the probability of making good quality silage will be improved. So are farm expenditures!
Technical and financial factors have led to growing interest and action to maximise home grown forage and increase milk production from forage for the dairy industry.
The emphasis in this article is on reducing losses during storage and feed-out, especially those caused by oxygen.
Producing good quality silage
Good quality silage is essential to achieve low-cost and high-quality milk, meat and biogas:
- Ensure the crop in the field is not over-mature at the time of harvest and is of high metabolizable energy (ME) value, 11.5 MJ/kg dry matter (DM). For grass and legume silages, the crop is also high in crude protein CP, >15% of DM.
- Cut grass as soon as possible when good weather is forecast. Delayed harvest of grass means a decrease in ME of 0.5 MJ/kg DM per week. Protein is also lower in mature grasses and legumes than in young, leafy crops.
Weather has various effects on losses:
- Rain: if rain occurs after cutting and pre-harvest, it increases loss in the field due to leaching of nutrients. Rain reduces the DM concentration of the crop at ensiling, which increases the extent of fermentation, with higher invisible loss of nutrients as carbon dioxide, and more visible loss as liquid effluent (leachate).
- Sunshine: sunshine is often the friend of silage making as it will increase the sugars of grasses over the day thus improving the nutritional value of the crop but it can also play a part in drying the crop too quickly leading to very high DM crop and problems then ensiling as you are unable to compact well enough.
Guidelines for cutting
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