5 tips for getting a quality silage

In the livestock sector as we have always mentioned one of the aspects that we consider important as well as all those that make up the system is the feeding of ruminant animals, as everyone knows pastures are the most economical and effective food for feeding this type of ruminants, if you don't know it yet we invite you to check our blog where you will find related content, continuing with the pastures it is relevant to mention that there are periods in the year when the yield of foliage or green biomass decreases considerably due to climatic factors such as drought, in these periods some producers may see their productivity affected if they do not implement food alternatives that balance the nutrition of the animals to continue producing milk or meat.

Among the alternatives that we have always mentioned in our blog for these times is the silage, which is a method of forage conservation, to save forage biomass for the aforementioned critical time, the ideal is to save the forage biomass in the periods that there is greater production so that animal feed is not compromised. The silage method consists of preserving the forages through a lactic fermentation, to achieve this there are a series of steps that must be fully complied with, that's why in this publication we share some tips to perform the tasks in the best way and preserve quality forages.

1- To start with the silage process, you must choose the type of fodder that you want to preserve, this can be corn, grass or some legume depending on the availability that exists in the production unit, although it sounds simple, the ideal is not only to save fodder, but also that it contains an adequate quality, in the case of grasslands the phenological state of the plant at the time of cutting is considered, that's why from our point of view the cutting should be carried out before the flowering stage, since, after a grass shows its inflorescence it is an indicator that it has advanced growth, in this case it is inferred that the amount of fiber has increased, being able to become a less digestible grass and with less amount of nutritional elements, because as the fiber increases the amount of proteins decreases.

2- You should also consider the chopping and the speed of filling the silo, the chopping between smaller (3-5 cm) will allow the material to be compacted well and the air from the space can be extracted in an easier way, remember that it is an anaerobic fermentation process where there should be no presence of oxygen for the desired microorganisms to proliferate. As for the speed of filling, it is because after harvesting the forage it can maintain a breathing process. To finish with that process, it is necessary to seal the silo as quickly as possible to prevent oxygen circulation.

3- The chopping into small pieces of forage material allows a good compaction to be carried out, therefore, it is important that you use effective compaction methods that allow the entire amount of air to be removed from the forage, if they are silo grades on the surface of the soil such as heap silos, you can pass the tractor over the material to compact it, in case you do not have a tractor you can use any method that you consider effective to compact the plant material.

4- After the silo is sealed, it must prevent air or water from entering, so you must be sure that its closure is hermetic, from agrotecnia we consider that an object that can be used as a silo are the 200 liter containers with a lid, the material is stored there well compacted and sealed with its hermetic lid, rest assured that if you followed all the steps thoroughly, no air will enter these silos, you will not have problems with rodents or any other animal that can break these containers.

5- Finally, and no less important is that you use additives that can inoculate lactic bacteria to the process, in this way you can reduce the fermentation time, you can apply whey which is an economical substance and contains the microorganisms you want, you have this resource yourself on your farm if you have dairy farming or failing that your neighbor will be able to provide you with this natural additive at very low costs.

Dear readers, I hope that this material will be of help to consider some aspects that are of importance when making a silage and sometimes they can be overlooked, establishing these types of alternatives are economical as long as they are carried out in the most polite way and do not have lost the material saved by some oversight, the animals and their pocket will thank you at the most critical times of the year.