Clamping straw with grass

[euroliner]

Would ensiling wheat straw with fresh grass and possibly even chopped Bert have any benefits of digestion or DM

 

[Coximus]

I've seen it done by blowing straw in layers onto the clamp. I was helping cart. It resulted in a dryer clamp and added bulk. Theey also put a layer of chop at the bottom and it did absorb the effluent well. Made little difference to analysis as the liqure was absorbed bringing up the me and protein of the straw.... So was a good bulkout and way of getting more forage.cost of time faffing and chopped straw meant not any saving per kg of food producsd vs straight grass silage. Still worth it imo as a way of increasing amount of feed you have

 

[Chae1]

I've thought about putting a layer of hesstons on bottom of pit. Can't remember statistic but every litre of effluent equals a a certain amount of litres of milk. At least the straw would absorb it and utilise it.

 

[M-J-G]

If silage is dry, what would the advantage be?

 

[euroliner]

We sell a lot of round bale silage and was wondering if when rowed we would blow a layer of straw out along the top of the swath before bailing would it create a better feeding product as in TMR and have a better analysis

 

[Chae1]

Sounds like a waste of diesel blowing straw ontop of swaths of grass.

Bert might not like being chopped.

 

[milkloss]

We wouldn’t have a sleeper wall clamp with a bugg3red concrete floor. Levelled with hardcore, Astro over that, layer of terram and then flakes of big bale straw all over to gain a buffer for between the shear grab and hardcore. Works well and no wastage, peel the terram back to clean the clamp.

Not enough money in the job for concrete sadly.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

If silage is dry, what would the advantage be?

No adavanted . You get straw in your silage when you feed it

 

[euroliner]

We rebaled alot of big XD square bale straw into rounds last year (market demands in rural Ireland ) so will be baling anyway , just wondered if it made the straw any better or worse

 

[som farmer]

we used to roll out 20/25 round bales in the bottom of each 60x40 ft pits, it produced a layer of about 1 inch when we opened the pits , so we gave up. uncle used to incorporate sugar beet nuts, first with a vicon spinner, then just bucket it on each load as it was tipped, couldn't really see that much in the pit, so he gave up. on reflection, it was initially done to limit effluent, and as we started to make better silage, with conditioners, and wilting, it probably didn't seem necessary. ai technician and myself, were reminiscing about silage effluent, years ago, and how in a bad year someone(usually me) had to get up at 2or 3 in the morning to empty the tank. my son, 32 really didn't look as if we were telling the truth, he looked the same when we were talking about couch, pre round-up ! it does make you think how much farming has changed in a few years, the biggest difference was that we employed 4men, and a dairyman, and my old man was making some serious money !!!

 

[M-J-G]

No adavanted . You get straw in your silage when you feed it

Plus you dilute the sugar content of what's in the pit and get a poorer fermentation.

Fair enough if it's a terribly wet year and and there is lots of effluent, but you generally hope that such wet silage can be avoided.

 

[Dkb]

I know a fella who puts in an artic of barley chaff out of the feed mill into the bottom of his pit. There’s a good bit of barley in the chaff and I think it’s 20 quid a tonne delivered.