Farmers Look At Making Of Silage

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29378, 3 December 1960, Page 9

Farmers Look At Making Of Silage

A prophesy that much would be seen in the future of silage self fed to beef cattle was made by Mr P. M. Falconer, adviser to the Lauriston Farm Improvement Club, when a field day for club members was held recently.

'Silage is a succulent, versatile, palatable feed,” said Mr Falconer. “It can be of great assistance as a basic winter feed or in emergencies in summer, spring and autumn, and must have general application in the higher rainfall areas of Mid-Canterbury.” Visiting the property of H. Jones and Sons, at Carew, members were able to see a most efficient means of conserving surplus pasture.

Mr Jones said that with the bountiful spring he was embarrassed with feed. He had successfully made baled silage in the past, but he felt the present method was far superior. It was faster and more efficient and pretty easy when it was all done sitting on a tractor.

A flail-type forage harvester with a sft cut and driven by a 40 horsepower tractor was cutting the standing material and blowing it into a truck. The truck had a special top on the tray which it was intended to use for handling bulk wheat in the harvest season, and it worked admirably for carting the chopped material from the paddock to the pit where it was being ensiled. The pit was on flat ground but the sides had been built up with the excavated material to give a capacity of over 250 tons of silage for a cost of only £3O in bulldozing. Mr Falconer estimated that the pit would hold the equivalent of about 2500 bales of hay, for which it would cost £4OO to build a barn.

The truck drove through the pit dumping its five-ton load as it went and while a further load was picked up, a tractor and buckrake levelled and consolidated the pitted material. Even with a few minor difficulties, Mr Jones and his two sons were able to handle an acre and a half an hour in what would have been a 2 to 2J-ton hay crop. Mr Falconer suggested that better than two acres an hour could be expected in most paddocks with a more powerful tractor as usually it would be lighter crops that were harvested.

In the present season most Canterbury farms could have made better use of the surplus feed by making silage. Much hay had been spoilt by weather and much time lost because of damp weather.

Both silage and hay had a place on most farms, said Mr Falconer. It was not a case of one or the other as they were very different types of feeds and were really complementary to each other. There were two main advantages of silage, said Mr Falconer, even when compared to hay. Firstly there was the possibility of conserving all types of feed at any stage of growth in weather unfavourable for hay making. Secondly, silage could be stored cheaply as a real reserve for an indefinite period. With the advent of the flail type forage harvester pasture toppings could be turned into useful feed and perhaps more important, pastures could be kept in control and palatable for sheep. White clover seed paddocks could be topped or, as Mr Jones was doing, rank pastures could be quickly conditioned for lamb weaning. Weedy pastures, too, could be made use of because there was little risk

of viable seeds remaining in silage. This was particularly important on farms where barley, grass, or nodding thistle were a problem. Because silage could be made in inclement weather there was little likelihood of any hold up, said Mr Jones. He did not like handling very wet material as the resultant silage lost nutrients when the excess moisture drained out. However, one'had only to look over the fence to see hay which had been out for a fortnight. There was no comparison which was the safest way to make good fodder. It had been considered that silage had two main disadvantages. said Mr Falconer. It was heavy and it smelt. With complete mechanisation in handling it, both these disadvantages were largely overcome. Feeding out from the pit in winter would be done with a front-end loader and no difficulties were envisaged. Several present who had experience with silage agreed that it was a very palatable feed and suitable for all stock. Mr Falconer said he had once given weaned lambs the choice of silage or good lucerne hay and they had chosen the silage. The Process The conversion of a green crop into silage is a complex process during which the action of enzymes, bacteria and fungi break down plant constituents to form organic acids. The best guide to anyone making silage was the temperature, said Mr Falconer. General opinion was that it should not pass a maximum of 110 degrees F. “'Hotter” silage was more palatable for sheep but lost some nutrients. Cold sour silage was satisfactory for cattle and much silage in the North Island was kept down to 80 to 90 degrees. Control of the temperature' was achieved in various ways but mainly by consolidation of the pit or stack. The more mature the material, the more it was wilted and the less it Was consolidated. the higher would be the temperature reached. Young, sappy and unwilted material cut with a chopper and rolled frequently would not get too hot. In general there is about three times the weight of silage that there is of hay, so paddocks yield about three to nine tons per acre. There is 40 cubic feet of silage per ton,* so the size of the pit needed can be worked out fairly easily—or the amount of silage in a pit.