silage addative

[Hobkin ground]

been looking at duel action addative. it contains a preservative called pottasium sorbate.
can buy pottasium sorbate on its own, would it be possible to just use this on its own?
if so how would i know the correct application rate would be?
have a little bit of face warming in the top meter of my clamp due to mature high dry matter wagon chopped grass

 

[Cowabunga]

Potassium Sorbate is great at stopping aerobic spoilage but isn’t so hot at promoting a predominantly lactic acid fermentation. For this you either apply an acid, such as formic acid, or a bacterial additive. As far as I am aware you cannot mix the two at the harvesting machine, in your case the wagon, because the bacterial additive will be neutralised by the anti-bacterial effect of the Potassium Sorbate. I presume that you are thinking of applying it to this year’s crop which has not yet been harvested? Too late if it’s already in the clamp and heating and possibly already growing mould.

The answer is surely to harvest earlier more leafy, less stemmy grass and to chop it much shorter and not excessively dry using a reputable bacterial additive if not confident of a good fermentation. The top metre should perhaps be carried in and ensiled a bit more moist than the rest, well rolled for about an hour and sealed using both side sheets and a top sheet, ideally two top sheets, within 10 hours of the last load being dumped. The prompt sheeting and tight weighing down of the sheet is as important as any other factor and attention to every detail is essential to making consistently good silage. About 35% DM maximum.

 

[Hobkin ground]

yes ,not yet cut this years crop!
on suckler cows here so do not want young leafy silage.
you could roll the clamp for a week with my grass and the top meter would still be springy.
been looking at ecosyl ecostable its 2 in 1 part bacterial part preserative ?
if iam not mistaken?

 

[Cowabunga]

yes ,not yet cut this years crop!
on suckler cows here so do not want young leafy silage.
you could roll the clamp for a week with my grass and the top meter would still be springy.
been looking at ecosyl ecostable its 2 in 1 part bacterial part preserative ?

Well with your management you will never make good silage with no significant waste at least at the top. If you don’t want it leafy, and most grass is no well past its heading date, you will have to chop it much shorter. There’s stalky mature grass and there stalky old seeded grass and I suspect you are doing the latter. Do consider changing your management or you will never escape the sheer waste of good grass.

 

[Old apprentice]

You could graze one field longer and get it at a leafe stage for the top to deal it better.

 

[DaveGrohl]

What’s your clamp management like when it comes to feed out? Do you go up there every day or do you pull the sheet back for a few days? Pull the sheet back over the silage after every day’s cutting out and you’ll find you have no need to even consider looking for the latest snake oil to put on your silage.

FYI we used an additive inc sorbate years ago. It contained two other food preservatives alongside. Great story. Made no difference at all, apart from to the income of the additive company. But we used to pull the sheet back for 3 or 4 days’ worth of feeding and leave it open. Pulling the sheet back over the silage made a world of difference, especially with higher DM stuff.

Or, more practically, pull the sheet back/cut off for a certain length of feed face and make sure you cut the top block off to where the sheet’s been cut off, the second row down will be stable.

 

[Hobkin ground]

Pull sheet back one shear grab depth at a time.takes 6 days to go across the clamp

 

[DaveGrohl]

Pull sheet back one shear grab depth at a time.takes 6 days to go across the clamp

Do you mean every day you pull it back, or one grab depth for the 6 days?

 

[Hobkin ground]

One grab back for the 6days
So roll back once every 6 days

 

[DaveGrohl]

One grab back for the 6days
So roll back once every 6 days

There’s your problem right there. No amount of special expensive additive will do anything to solve bad feedout management. I’ve explained it above.

Can’t face going up there every day? Why? Cut your silage out so you have steps up to the top. No need to mess on with ladders. I do this every day, it’s not remotely a chore. We used to have no end of waste like you seem to be doing. Zero waste since I changed what we do.

 

[Hobkin ground]

i think we have our wires crossed here!
i roll the sheet back 1 sheargrab depth then go every day and cut out what i need. it takes 6 days to go across the face.
also i only get SLIGHT warming in patches not all the time
i have used all but 2 sheargrabs full in the entire pit there is no waste in my clamp! it would just be better if thete was no warming at all.

 

[DaveGrohl]

i think we have our wires crossed here!
i roll the sheet back 1 sheargrab depth then go every day and cut out what i need. it takes 6 days to go across the face.
also i only get SLIGHT warming in patches not all the time
i have used all but 2 sheargrabs full in the entire pit there is no waste in my clamp! it would just be better if thete was no warming at all.

Have we? I understood you to mean you roll the sheet back 1 grab depth, and that you don’t go up again for 6 days. That’s what it read like before and still what it reads like in the last post. So there is a length of the top that is exposed to the air for 6 days.

So, you may think there’s no waste, but there is if the top grab full is warming. The grab on day 1 is probably fine but the grab on day 5/6 will be warming significantly? Because it’s been exposed for 5/6 days…

I’ve maybe got it wrong, granted. Just trying to help.