How's the silage ground traveling this year?
Grazed off? Slurry out? Fert spread?
Or is it like a bog at the moment, a good year for rewetting.
I’d imagine the dry matter being as low as 22% would have a lot more to do with it than whether there was film or net.
I didn’t know this would have a bearing on it. Would it want to be around 30% to get good fermentation? Actually surprised it’s not higher as the weather was scorching so could just be a sample.
Have bales of silage but won’t be opening for at least another 3 weeks, I would like to test them, is there any way that I can test them before I use them?
At that dry matter for every Kg an animal consumes they are taking in nearly 4kgs of water. That kind of silage burns energy out of cattle.
There are multiple problems with wet silage first if the silage has N left in it the N is soulable in the water drying out burns it off as well any N left is dried out and is less likely to effect the fermentation.
I always go for higher DM if possible disadvantage is you have to mind the bales and make sure they do not get damages as you will get mould. Mine usuall is minimum 40 if at all possible.But dry haylage type silage made in late May is a great feed.
I would imagine that dm is wrong as it was left down for 2days in very hot weather and also when I took the sample I don't remember it being anyway noticeable wet there was no water dripping out of it. Not currently feeding it wet but will find out. I just opened a hole in 2bales and took a lump from them. I will take another sample when I open the bales
Not being insulting but your away too worried about your farming.
I've seen years when silage was shiit after real bad summers and unless you are in winter milk or winter finishing you should not worry. If they are going out again in March, they will catch up.
I give 2kg of a 15% beef nut to dairy weanlings and the dry stock, and the incalf heifers. The cows get silage unless the second calvers need a boost in January.
I'd say just take a sample with a corer, if that's the right word or a thin aluminum pipe and then tape up the hole with silage tape.
Or wait until you open the bales, they're not going to get better or worse at this stage
A bit of stainless steel pipe off an old pipeline milking machine is the handy to make a corer
I never tested before but this year I’d say it’s top quality stuff, that’s why I’m considering it!
You're right, I meant to write stainless.
I think other metal may affect the results or is that just soil samples?
What’s peoples opinion on the bales that have the film instead of the net?
First time using them here, I've only 3 opened so far but really impressed with the film
No mould whatsoever, bale held its shape better, early days but signs are good
last year was my first year trying it and I have to say it was great so used it again this year on most of this years crop great job no waste bales better preserved no fust or shite spots. Even some bales that where damaged during handling that wasn't noticed where ok where the film was
Is a euro extra per bale the norm for the film countrywide?
1.50 in 2023, didn’t get billed for it this year. less waste and less hassle then with net. Not a game changer.
For me it was a euro cheaper because of no net but then I supplied the film
We’ve been using the film & Hermitex Cover on the pit the past 3 years, great job, less waste but not easy to get on as the wind always seems to make an appearance just as we open it out.
Prior to that we had always used 2 silage covers (always new as we cut off the excess each time we open back more of the pit)
1.25 here this year, paid contractor last month
What do you find better the nut or ration? I usually throw it along the silage
I don’t know how much extra it is
Got the silage made last year analysed. The DM came back as 18% - which affected the fermentation as we knew. There was a bit of a sour smell and some bales would release about 1 - 2 buckets of water when the base was cut off the bale.
The grass was not wet when baled. We did bale a bit earlier than we normally do, but the grass/sward was fine to the touch when baled.
It was cut dry, left for ~24hrs and then baled and wrapped. Could this have been moisture in the grass leaves or what reason could there be for the low DM reading. The swards were checked before baling and were definitely not wet.
Very rich grass
how did it feed overall should be powerful stuff?
Fed out okay - barely any spoilage. Maybe a 2 wheelbarrows all winter. Apart from the passage swimming in water and sour smell, it was okay. Could see a light yellow tinge to parts of it where there was water/sourness.
Protein: 12%
DMD: 75.8%
ME: 12.1MJ/kg
pH: 4.0
Ammonia N: 3.1%
Sugars: 0.7%
Ash: 5.3%
NDF: 53.7%
ADF: 31.7%
VFA: 47.8g/kg
Lactic: 83.7g/kg
RSV: 300.3
I would not agree. At 18%DM cattle would have to get rid of a lot of excess water. An animal needing 9kg DM, they would need to consume 50kgs per day to achieve that and get ris of 12-14L of excess moisture and rising the temperature of that liquid by about 30 degrees centigrade. It's the quivlent of boiling 5L of water approximately every day. Hard to thrive doing that unless fed 2-3 kgs of ration
apologies from me I read that as 18% protein I got it wrong. My own second cut was 23% dm and was a strong smell from it but no water came out of it. however it was good silage cattle went mad for it but are probably gaining more weight on the first cut as its 37% dm. first cut was 73 and second cut was 74dmd
They be doing a lot better on the 37% DM even if ot was below 70DMD
yeah onky issue is there taking an extra day to a day and a half to eat a bale. And I have loads of silage was hoping to use it up but looks like I will have to carry some silage probably missed my chance to sell it with this weather.
I would not call that an issue. If you had wet silage you would have many more bales. Dry silage reduces bale count by 25-30%. On every 100 bales that is 400-450 euro / hundred for plastic, baling and wrapping to say nothing about money saved on handling, feeding and waste. You are much more likely to have waste with wet bales at the feed face.
high risk of mould and poor preservation in high dm wrapped bales unless an inoculant is used
anything above 40% dm will have very low me% which is no good either
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