Right size for maize pit?

Deepsouthwest

Digging out for a silage pit here at the moment, but probably have room to put in a narrow pit beside, so think I will as it will only be one more wall. The dig is 100 ft in length and 60 ft wide (aprox). Thinking of splitting it 40ft for silage, 20ft for maize. Does this sound ok?

stanflt

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

Digging out for a silage pit here at the moment, but probably have room to put in a narrow pit beside, so think I will as it will only be one more wall. The dig is 100 ft in length and 60 ft wide (aprox). Thinking of splitting it 40ft for silage, 20ft for maize. Does this sound ok?

ideal but i would go longer

Cow Porter

depends greatly on the rate of feed out you are planning if you will go across the pit in two days in cool weather it will be ok i would say, but if you cant go across in one day in warm weather you may have trouble, it does heat fast once disturbed which isnt the best for cows, unless you go for a product like 11A44 from pioneer, probably the only one that works as it should, but pricey,

how high are the walls?? long and narrow would be ideal.

do a few sums back wards, this is how to measure tonnes of maize silage when it is clamped

1) measue pit l x b x h in metres will give you m3 (cubic metres)

2) follow the table below [hope it works out] and multiply the figure got above by the corresponding figure of dm below


DRY MATTER
Depth (m) 25% 30% 35%
_ _ _ _0.5 620 590 520
_ _ _ _ _1 690 640 580
_ _ _ _1.5 730 680 620
_ _ _ _ _2 770 720 660
_ _ _ _2.5 800 750 700


e.g. pit of maize 20m x 10m x 2m = 400m3 in pit, dry matter 25% -> 770kg of maize inn every m3 so 400m3 x 770 = 308 tonnes

Or a less accurate way is l x b x h in metres divide by 1.1

Timmaay

I got a pit 8ft high and about 80ft long, and there is plenty of space beside it to put down a pit of some sort for maize. I was actually thinking about putting in just 25ft slab, use the wall one one side and just build up the maize the other side. Would this work or should I just got the whole hog and throw in a maize pit similar to what suggested above?

blackdog1

Was in france a few years ago. They have long narrow pits and use a machine for cutting it down. Called a silage facer. Think ill go down the maize route myself next year especially for buffer feeding in the spring or wet weather. The big problem is heating and sealing the pit. The best system I saw for this was narrow pit , covered with that thin white plastic then silage sheet and the use of a pit facer.

darragh_haven

A neighbour of mine who used to do 40 to 55 acres of maize has a 20 ft wide pit and the walls are 11 ft high. 20 ft is about the best for filling and using in the winter. He did say using the clear plastic was as the first layer was a must to get a proper seal. (I don't know the name of the clear plastic product)
He doesn't do maize any more but has his own strutmann silage wagon and says the pit is now very handy for when he wants to cut strong paddocks, and he only wants 100 bales every year.

blue5000

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

Digging out for a silage pit here at the moment, but probably have room to put in a narrow pit beside, so think I will as it will only be one more wall. The dig is 100 ft in length and 60 ft wide (aprox). Thinking of splitting it 40ft for silage, 20ft for maize. Does this sound ok?

Have you looked into those pre-cast walls? Lots of lads getting excited about maize with two warm summers, lots of lads got pissed off with maize 2011-12. It might be worth leaving a 'foundation' for pre-cast walls at 20 foot and in the middle as well in case you get pissed off with maize as well. Then you can have 2 30' pits. The 'foundation' is basically a 4'' deep slot about a metre wide, check with the suppliers.
How many cows will you be feeding and what proportion of maize will they get?
20 x 100 should give you room for 15-20 acres of maize.