Rolling silage pit before sheeting

[beaconsboy]

Finished last night. Now I read somewhere you shouldn't roll the next day cos it traps the air in. It needs a Tidy up. What are people's thoughts cheers

 

[ridger]

Roll it

 

[davidroberts30]

Sheet as soon as finished
If left the silage starts producing co2 and if you roll it the next morning you will introduce more oxygen into the grass

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Give it a,good roll . But the old way of rolling for a week then Sheeting has surely died

 

[livestock 1]

Old fellas used to tell me to keep rolling to get the heat out. I rolled pits for hours and hours then they don’t get the same attention now that’s for sure

 

[The Ruminant]

Avoid rolling the next day.

When grass is put in the pit, it starts to decompose - the aerobic bacteria on the grass (those that need oxygen to work) start to break it down. If the oxygen isn't kept out you end up with compost. When you sheet the pit, the aerobic bacteria continue to decompose the grass but in doing so they use up the oxygen. Within a couple of hours the oxygen will be virtually used up and these bacteria go dormant or die. Then the anaerobic bacteria start to perform (these don't need oxygen). They too are decomposing the grass, but one of their 'waste products' is lactic acid. Once they've given off enough lactic acid, the silage is pickled and stable.

What happens when you roll the pit the next day is that you reintroduce oxygen. It's like a big set of bellows. Your tractor runs over the top, squashing the grass, then as it moves away the grass springs back up, sucking in air. They you come back again, squash it, it springs up and sucks in more air. The result is that your aerobic bacteria can kick off again, decomposing the grasses so quality drops.

Avoid rolling the next day!

 

[milkloss]

Fork it over by hand to level it and sheet it

 

[beaconsboy]

Fork it over by hand to level it and sheet it

Fork and hand....... what's one of those [emoji1]

 

[Pennine Ploughing]

it should be rolled as its filled, so once over rolling and sheet

 

[Fendt65]

We have a guy near us that never puts a sheet on absolutely massive clamps fed to beef cattle,he only gets a a small layer of waste on top but feeds that anyway it has to be seen to be believed,I don’t have the bottle to try it on my clamp though.

 

[multi power]

Sheet as soon as finished
If left the silage starts producing co2 and if you roll it the next morning you will introduce more oxygen into the grass

Correct

 

[Al R]

We have a guy near us that never puts a sheet on absolutely massive clamps fed to beef cattle,he only gets a a small layer of waste on top but feeds that anyway it has to be seen to be believed,I don’t have the bottle to try it on my clamp though.

That all depends on climate/rainfall mind..

I’ve heard of seriously big clamps being covered with a fert spinner full of feed barley and just left alone so the moisture sprouts the barley and it causes a crust on the top of the clamp which in time becomes waterproof so the rain runs off. Best for AD plants as they can just put in the sprouted barley where as animals may get ill from it.

Personally kelvin cave type roller over it while being filled, three times over again with roller then sheet when appropriate..

 

[sticky]

I witnessed a big finisher cover his pit with orange peel last year, it did a cracking job as I saw the pit once every couple of weeks . There was no waste and the cattle ate the peel as well.

 

[michael N123]

I’ve never seen a pit go bad from being over rolled the next day..

 

[Werzle]

Sheeting it tidy is key, even a well rolled pit will spoil if the sheeting is half cocked

 

[betweenthelines]

I witnessed a big finisher cover his pit with orange peel last year, it did a cracking job as I saw the pit once every couple of weeks . There was no waste and the cattle ate the peel as well.

Clamps used to be covered with lime (ground lime,not peel lol) before plastic sheeting was available. And rolled with a Fordson Major, so with the weight of most buckrake outfits these days, I doubt if any extra rolling is needed. There was a recent clip on TFF of a Dutch farmer making wagon silage, he did little more than just level the heap-no rolling and just a medium sized 2WD tractor on the buckrake. I think we have a lot to learn (or un learn)

 

[The Ruminant]

I’ve never seen a pit go bad from being over rolled the next day..

It won't 'go bad', it will just carry on decomposing for slightly longer, thus reducing the feed value (the aerobic bugs in the clamp use up the energy rather than your cows' rumen bugs using it!)

 

[Al R]

Clamps used to be covered with lime (ground lime,not peel lol) before plastic sheeting was available. And rolled with a Fordson Major, so with the weight of most buckrake outfits these days, I doubt if any extra rolling is needed. There was a recent clip on TFF of a Dutch farmer making wagon silage, he did little more than just level the heap-no rolling and just a medium sized 2WD tractor on the buckrake. I think we have a lot to learn (or un learn)

You see 414’s with 620’s on yet a 434 on 750’s so basically negating the weight gain from having a bigger machine. A ford son major has far more psi than a cat d8 for example yet the cat weighs 50 times?

I see no point in buckraking kit running duels

 

[multi power]

I’ve never seen a pit go bad from being over rolled the next day..

Perhaps you don't know the difference between average silage and excellent silage ?

 

[multi power]

That all depends on climate/rainfall mind..

I’ve heard of seriously big clamps being covered with a fert spinner full of feed barley and just left alone so the moisture sprouts the barley and it causes a crust on the top of the clamp which in time becomes waterproof so the rain runs off. Best for AD plants as they can just put in the sprouted barley where as animals may get ill from it.

Personally kelvin cave type roller over it while being filled, three times over again with roller then sheet when appropriate..

Nothing whatsoever to do with rainfall, it's all about excluding oxygen, the no.1 enemy of silage