New Silage Pits

[Will Wilson]

We see vertical walls fail all the time.

This is a broad but true statement from first hand experience - Most silage clamps built in the UK (even new ones) are not good enough for modern requirements and a lot fail in the first couple of years.

If whoever builds your clamps cant tell you the maximum weight of machinery that can be used on them / they are designed for then what are you buying?

It's only when you go to Holland that you realise how poor our clamps are in the UK - see pics below from a trip in December last year to look at their designs.

 

[PREES]

@Will Wilson - Did you look at the silage covers (roll on the clamp all and back filled with water?) shown in one of your pics? - Any views? Can you see them coming to the UK?

 

[bigw]

I'm getting serious clamp envy @Will Wilson!

 

[Will Wilson]

I liked the clamp covering system - but (and its a big one) it's a massive (£50,000+) investment and a significant mindset change to respecting the management of silage clamps and valuing time and safety.

They are certainly a lot harder to manage and maintain than a gravel bag and net.

I think we are a couple of decades away from this sort of tech especially when we are so far behind on even the basic principles, for example those clamps were 4m high and only filled to 3 m high to make them safer to use and so the walls wouldn't be overloaded.

The feed out rate was 3m a week because they were so long and narrow and they were adding more clamps this year (they had 5).

Imagine building a 4m high silage clamp and only filling it 3m high!

 

[vantage]

I liked the clamp covering system - but (and its a big one) it's a massive (£50,000+) investment and a significant mindset change to respecting the management of silage clamps and valuing time and safety.

They are certainly a lot harder to manage and maintain than a gravel bag and net.

I think we are a couple of decades away from this sort of tech especially when we are so far behind on even the basic principles, for example those clamps were 4m high and only filled to 3 m high to make them safer to use and so the walls wouldn't be overloaded.

The feed out rate was 3m a week because they were so long and narrow and they were adding more clamps this year (they had 5).

Imagine building a 4m high silage clamp and only filling it 3m high!

Doing the same as a shed with a low roof,for about the same cost?

 

[ridger]

I liked the clamp covering system - but (and its a big one) it's a massive (£50,000+) investment and a significant mindset change to respecting the management of silage clamps and valuing time and safety.

They are certainly a lot harder to manage and maintain than a gravel bag and net.

I think we are a couple of decades away from this sort of tech especially when we are so far behind on even the basic principles, for example those clamps were 4m high and only filled to 3 m high to make them safer to use and so the walls wouldn't be overloaded.

The feed out rate was 3m a week because they were so long and narrow and they were adding more clamps this year (they had 5).

Imagine building a 4m high silage clamp and only filling it 3m high!

It would be 6 meters here at least lol

 

[Tullyvernon]

I liked the clamp covering system - but (and its a big one) it's a massive (£50,000+) investment and a significant mindset change to respecting the management of silage clamps and valuing time and safety.

They are certainly a lot harder to manage and maintain than a gravel bag and net.

I think we are a couple of decades away from this sort of tech especially when we are so far behind on even the basic principles, for example those clamps were 4m high and only filled to 3 m high to make them safer to use and so the walls wouldn't be overloaded.

The feed out rate was 3m a week because they were so long and narrow and they were adding more clamps this year (they had 5).

Imagine building a 4m high silage clamp and only filling it 3m high!

Silage certainly is very precious in holand, but there is a lot of decent silos about the UK as well.

we are also very far off their debt leves

 

[holywell farmer]

View attachment 754796 View attachment 754798 View attachment 754800 View attachment 754802 Another tip so to think about the width of the pits and the ease of covering them, if you're on your own when you cover them narrower pits are easier to work with covering left to right. Try to make them the same size as the available covers.

If NI regs are the same as UK (SSAFO) then I am afraid clay banks and a concrete base are not 'legal' as the base does not extend beyond the wall (unless the banks are built on top of the base)- the EA aren't always very clued up on this.

It all depends on what you are trying to achieve - if you want as close to perfect silage quality you will have a different design to a pit which costs less to build but not make as good silage.

No losses feeding out ?

 

[Will Wilson]

Never no losses (I don't think that is possible) but from all the research I have found - which is pretty limited and mostly based on research from the US and some German papers - a reduction in losses through higher feedouts.

When I get more time I will post the links to the best (free) research online. Everything else is behind a paywall and the stuff we have got I probably cant post or I will be told off for for copywrite (etc).

Either way the losses in clamps in the UK are eye watering as you can see here - http://www.smartsilage.com/

 

[ridger]

Noone could loss 25% surely

 

[Will Wilson]

It's a figure (20-25%) that pops up again and again in the research - I was blown away as well.

A cynic might argue that farmers making poor silage (and selling manufactured alternatives/supplements) is very good business

I am not a cynic of course.

 

[Tullyvernon]

Do you know what the field and silo filling losses usually are caused by?

 

[Bogeyman]

Farmer doesn’t but possibly contractor does over filling trailers,missing trailers when turning on head rig,not being tidy with tedder and rake.....

 

[holywell farmer]

Do you know what the field and silo filling losses usually are caused by?

Logic says it's easier to fill pit with proper concrete sides than an open pit!

 

[vantage]

Logic says it's easier to fill pit with proper concrete sides than an open pit!

If you have the space,having no walls and a domed pit can be cheaper and just as good as a walled pit as it can be fully compacted,see how the yanks do it.

 

[betweenthelines]

"Loses" includes loss of feed value, not just physical degradation of grass

 

[William26]

So if I concreted an hour and then build walls out of subsoil which overlapped the concrete, this would be acceptable in wales?

 

[Dead Rabbits]

No concrete no problem

 

[coomoo]

View attachment 755834 No concrete no problem

Tyre to tyre tho

 

[Will Wilson]

So if I concreted an hour and then build walls out of subsoil which overlapped the concrete, this would be acceptable in wales?

As long as the concrete base extended beyond the outside of the earth banks.