MANUFACTURING SILAGE

Taranaki Daily News, 17 September 1934, Page 14

MANUFACTURING SILAGE

LESSONS OF COMPETITIONS BENEFITS OF EARLY CUTTING. HARVESTING AT LEAFY STAGE. Reviewing the lessons of the farmers’ hay and silage competitions in North Taranaki, the final results of which were published yesterday, Mr. J. M. Smith, of the Department of Agriculture, New Plymouth, said that next to the raw material the stage of cutting had the greatest influence on the quality of the silage, and if the competitions had done nothing else but demonstrate the benefits of early cutting then they had been well worth while. The aim in cutting should be to catch all of the grasses and clovers at their best stage, but the dominant species in the sward should be the guiding factor. In a high production sward this would probably be the perennial rye. It was sometimes stated that cutting at this stage meant a big sacrifice in quantity but this was a mistaken idea, for the heaviest crop was that cut when the leaf growth was at its maximum. A crop going past this stage might appear to be growing higher but this extra top growth was principally seed stalk growth, which from a food point of view was poor. As this seed stalk growth developed so did the fibre content of the whole crop increase and each succeeding day meant a reduction in food value without any compensating increase in yield. Farmers who have cut pastures for silage in the varying stages of growth were unanimous in their opinion that the best silage resulted from the crop being cut at a leafy succulent stage. There was also a greater margin of safety regarding the quality of the resultant silage from mismanagement when the crop was harvested at a leafy stage. During the past season, the necessity of having a sappy crop’ to deal with was brought home in a forceful manner. The spring months were for Taranaki comparatively, dry, only eight and three-quarter inches of rain falling during September, October and November. About the time for the growing silage crops to develop there were 18 consecutive days without rain and this resulted in a less sappy crop than normally. This in turn was reflected in much of the silage, which, on account of lack of sap was cured at too high a temperature, and’ came out of the stack quite dark in colour. The same effect was noticeable where jhe crop was allowed to go past its best stage for silage making. DISPATCH IN HARVESTING. While it was important to cut the crop at a sappy stage of leaf growth, it was necessary to get the raw material quickly into the stack so as to conserve the succulence of the growing crop. This rapid harvesting was particularly desirable where the crop had gone past its best stage before cutting. So seized were some of the competitors of the importance of this phase of silage making that they employed an extra team, so that the crop was mown just in front of the sweeps and it was only a matter of minutes before the material was harvested. While this was doubtless desirable where the team unit was sufficiently large to enable it to be carried out, it was hardly necessary to engage special teams to enable mower and sweep to work at the same time. Nevertheless the available team should be employed so that the green material did not lie for more than an hour or two at most before being harvested, even if it meant changing the team from sweep to mower as many as three times in the day. If the weather were at all drying (hot and windy) the wilting of the green material was very rapid and every hour out meant an inferior silage. There were times, however, whenAsome wilting was considered advantageous, one of these being when an extrdmely sappy crop, such as lucerne or oafs, was being dealt with. Again, if the silage were being made in a pit, the vzilting of the first day’s filling would obviate the rank, sour, undesirable silage one frequently found at the bottom of a pit. It would be noted that all of these operations (i.e., cutting at a sappy stage and rapid harvesting) aimed at a low-temperature silage. There was little doubt that the competitions have clearly indicated in a practical manner that for milking stock comparatively low-temperature silage was the silage to aim at. This did not mean a dark green, objectionaly-sour material, but the golden green fruity type of silage. Investigations into complaints about silage from various sources had invariably led the investigator to an undesirably-sour type of silage or to the dark brown burnt type. At no time had the fruity green type been found responsible for any trouble. There was little to be added to file evidence of previous seasons about the building of the stack. Continuous building was desirable where mechanical means of hoisting the material were available, but if through force of circumstances it were necessary to fork the material on to the stack, then the resting of the stack between the days of building reduced labour considerably. The round versus the square stack controversy continued to rage, but there was little in it either way. If a builder felt more competent to build a square stack he should keep to that, but if on the other hand he felt more at home with the round stack he should build a round one. If, however, he were ait home with both the round stack should prove the best. The keeping of the stack fairly full in the centre was how in favour, but care should be taken not to overdo this, or a dwarfed wall with large shoulder waste would result. The walls should be firm and upright and should not be sprung; they themselves would do all the springing necessary. Hard raking or hard pulling of the walls was very desirable, but they should not be cut back, as a cut wall left a surface into which air could penetrate deeply. A MISTAKEN IDEA. A mistaken idea existed in some quarters that where a hillside pit or concrete pit was being used for the conservation of silage any building of the material could be done away with and the grass /’just heaved in.” Such an idea was quite wrong, as many competitors had found to their sorrow. Almost as much care and attention needed to be paid to the building of the material into the pit as was paid to it in the stack. It was an advantage to keep the centre full and in some cases high, but the walls must be well packed and tramped. A hollow centre drew the material away from the sides as it settled, while a full centre with loose walls meant that the sides sunk more rapidly than the centre, with the result that they were drawn away from the walls. Continuous filling of the pit was not advisable in that the temperature came up more slowly in the pit than it did in the stack and rapid filling often resulted in a stack that was too sour.

Building above ground was a decided drawback of the pit, and slow filling meant that more material could be got into the pit before it was necessary to build above ground. Where it was necessary to build any height above the ground level it would be found an advantage to put a slight bevel on the lip of the pit to ease the stack part of the green material into the pit. An alternative to this bevel was to gradually increase the size Of the stack as it proceeded above the pit blit this system left too much to chance. The use of a bevel was certainly the surest method. Earth

pits continued’ to be quite satisfactory, provided the walls were smooth and did not crumble unduly. This was where concrete pits were an advantage. The damp earth wall created more mould around the walls of the silage than did the concrete. Another drawback to the earth walls was the amount of damage done by mice. Temperatime in the stack was controlled by the exclusion of air; heating took place in the first, and subsequent sections built having the addition; of material on top. Following the last day’s harvesting it was necessary to exclude the air from this section and some weight should be put on top to bring this about. Usually soil was used, although at times boulders, concrete slabs, etc., were employed. Just as continuous building excluded the air and controlled the temperature, so should the soil be put on straight away to control the temperature in the top section. The depth of soil depended upon the weight of soil. For instance, in the Uruti district less heavy silt was needed than, say, with the light pumice soil of Inglewood. As a rule, however, a foot to 18 inches of soil should suffice. The important thing about the soil, however; was to get it 'right out on to the edges of the stack, to ensure good weight on the walls, a factor that should reduce wall waste considerably. GOOD WEIGHT ON WALLS. Many and varied were the means employed to bring this about, but the palm must go to the Okato district where short heavy logs anchored to a central peg were employed. The logs themselves were heavy and, being some 15 inches in diameter, allowed a big depth of soil to be brought right out. Mr. H. A. Paul’s oat stack was given the maximum points for cover, it being impossible to suggest any improvement, even in a minute way. Occasionally boulders were used and these‘were very successful where the stack was heavily consolidated during building. On Mr. L. Marsh’s stack at Hillsborough, where the teams actually name up on to the stack with each load and a very high degree of consolidation was effected, the boulders acted equally as well as did the soix in other cases. Where consolidation was not all that could be desired, however, boulders tended to sink into the stack, resulting in depressions into which water found its way and caused much waste. The past season’s work confirmed the previous conclusion that where good silage was made and fed judiciously to the stock, silage was a highly advantageous stock fodder. On the other hand, poor silage badly fed would cause trouble, and, unfortunately, one complaint caused more suspicion than 100 complimentary statements did. Swedes, chaff; hay, etc., had all been known to cause stock troubles, yet one seldom heard these fodders roundly and whole-heart-edly condemned just because of misuse by one or two misguided persons. An occasional misuse of silage would in some districts be sufficient to set up an agitation to place an embargo on this valuable fodder. Some farmers, probably 95 to 98 per cent., had never had a single complaint, nor had they ever had stock trouble.