Milk taint

[grahampadfield]

Thanks for all the suggestions. The taint is definitely in the silage. Changed silage, taint stopped. But we still don’t know what weed has caused the taint. Will just have to separate the weedy silage somehow next time I suppose

 

[Stinker]

Been struggling on and off with silage taint for years. Never figured it out. Always in silage that is drier than normal but not haylage. Possibly caused by to much winter growth or late dirty water application. Splitting the bales 24 hours before you feed them seems to work

 

[grahampadfield]

That’s interesting, May 2020 was very dry. The silage was 21% D.M.. but it was cut low and there was some dead grass in the bottom. Perhaps we picked up manure. We always have a lot of weed because we are organic. Daisies,dandelion,dock,plantain, thistles, and charlock. We need to pin it down as we can’t afford to have taint next year. And we have a lot of tainted silage which will be difficult to feed out.

 

[Whitewalker]

That’s interesting, May 2020 was very dry. The silage was 21% D.M.. but it was cut low and there was some dead grass in the bottom. Perhaps we picked up manure. We always have a lot of weed because we are organic. Daisies,dandelion,dock,plantain, thistles, and charlock. We need to pin it down as we can’t afford to have taint next year. And we have a lot of tainted silage which will be difficult to feed out.

We had beautiful silage, no slurry cos too much cover lying over winter. It was cut and wilted . Very little weeds. Baled mid may

 

[Agrispeed]

Charlock can cause milk taint if there's enough, although cows never seem that keen to eat it when its ensiled. As will dandelions and chicory, as will high levels of clover (allegedly, but I've never seen that)

I've had some odd things happen from silage from grass with dead stuff in the bottom that didn't ferment well, it has a strange, but not unpleasant smell. I fed it to dry cows so wouldn't know if it caused taint though.

 

[Sid]

Easy to blame everything bar silage!