Reflection & Pre-Silage Season Preparation
It’s here again!! No sooner have we passed the short dark days of winter, then we had the brighter spring season with all hands on deck for lambing and calving, and suddenly preparations for silage season must begin.
It’s here again!! No sooner have we passed the short dark days of winter, then we had the brighter spring season with all hands on deck for lambing and calving, and suddenly preparations for silage season must begin.
As with most things, planning for an upcoming event is aided by first starting with a little reflection on how last year went. Beginning with the harvesting phase - was the crop cut at its optimum level hitting the “sweet spot” between quantity and quality? Did the weather window allow for efficient wilting? Did you use an additive best suited to address your biggest concern at the time, whether it be fermentation or stability? Would it be the right choice for this year again? Did the contractor provide an efficient service from mowing at the optimum height - through correct chop length, to matching clamp filling speed and the best compaction possible? Were all gate posts still intact?? These are just some of the questions we look back on to try and improve for the season ahead, always striving to make the next year a better one.
With regards to the storage phase - were you happy with compaction? Did you monitor DM losses and have a plan of how best to reduce this? Do you think the clamp sheet used was the best choice for the job? Do you need to order more gravel bags or silage rings to hold the sheet in place? Silo2Block 7 layer oxygen barrier sheets are one of the best on the market with very very low oxygen permeability compared to the traditional black sheets. It also cuts out the need for a separate “cling film” sheet as it performs the role of two sheets in one. If you wish to find out more about these sheets and other products for your silage storage prior to the season ahead, please don’t hesitate to look at our shop www.agrisile.com or contact us at info@agrisile.com for further information and we will be happy to help with anything that we can.
It’s well worth the time to sit and create a structured plan and set some objectives for this coming silage season in advance because silage is a losing process…”once you start cutting, you start losing” everything possible has to be done to improve silage quality during every stage of the process.
The UK weather has a great deal of influence in terms of silage quality year on year. After a very wet end to last winter we have gone to the other extreme and had a very dry end to spring, with lack of rain at a crucial time for grass growth its currently looking like first cut quantity will be down considerably. However, we would hope that the impact is lessened as the feed quality should be better given the hours of sunshine we’ve seen. We are wishing everyone a prosperous season ahead and here’s to everyone meeting their silage making objectives this summer.