miniconnect
Member
- Location
- Argyll
A good customer of ours chose not to use any last year. Have used additive for as long as we have done their silage. They say their silage analysis has never been better. Coincidence maybe but I don't know......
Silage Additive
- Thread starter Phil87
- Start date
ridger
Member
- Location
- Tyrone, Northern Ireland
Heard that before then the next year the person used additive again ........
- Location
- Acton Scott, South Shropshire
What are our additives doing? Promotion of a quick fermentation by either adding bacteria or by adding products that will encourage the bacteria already there? If you have the ideal conditions - good quality grass with high sugars and low contamination then why use an additive? (or so the argument goes). Now spend some time and money to completely exclude any air ingress that might counteract the above. What more are we paying for in an additive?
Now back to my earlier point - waste is going to be on surface and shoulders so could I reasonably reduce my costs by just adding additive to these areas of the clamp?
Now back to my earlier point - waste is going to be on surface and shoulders so could I reasonably reduce my costs by just adding additive to these areas of the clamp?
Headless chicken
Member
- Location
- West Wales
If I was just doing top and shoulder I would poor on acid myself
What qualifies a consultant to advise this? I believe that's his own personal opinion and we shouldn't take everything "consultants" say as black and white.
- Location
- Acton Scott, South Shropshire
Fancy I might trust an independent telling me I dont need to buy something than a sales rep telling me I do 
There are some very good independants out there who's opinion would certainly be worth considering
There are some very good independants out there who's opinion would certainly be worth considering
More to life
Member
- Location
- Somerset
True but it was backed up by benchmarked figures
I do believe additive does a good job, there's some good and bad ones out there. My ideal situation is if you already have a good 70 D Value silage for example but the additive helps convert it to say a 72 D Value silage. Over a winter that is a lot of milk extra from forage. Plus less waste and better DM intake because the forage hasn't warmed up the same as it would untreated.
The proof is in the pudding, I think there's only the farmers who can decide from what the cow tells you.Fancy I might trust an independent telling me I dont need to buy something than a sales rep telling me I do
There are some very good independants out there who's opinion would certainly be worth considering
- Location
- Acton Scott, South Shropshire
Agreed, I consider the consultant is there to provoke discussion but you cant beat evidence - which is why this forum is so valuable (once you filter out the pub talk
)linga
Member
- Location
- Ceredigion
There is more to silage than just analysis. Additives have been shown over many years to improve animal performance.
And many of those trials have been done independently too.
Whether the extra performance is worth an extra quid or so a tonne is another matter
In your case its probably not worth it additive is a funny thing, mostly people who use it swear by it and people who don't, think you don't need it.
Doing a lot of contracting we see both camps, the guys that use it quite often make silage in the rain
We don't at home but I'm starting to think it might be worthwhile using some on the maize, get bugger all waste on the silage usually so I can't really see much point especially as its not dairy cow silage.
I've seen silage this year that have not had additive tested early on with a good level of sugar in it and ok Lactic levels (good silage too) but as the year has gone on there has been an uncontrolled secondry fermentation which has used a lot of the sugar up and turned it into Lactic Acid. This is no big deal but you do get an inconsistent forage and need to keep a close eye on the diet and cows. A lot of farms will get a consultant to put a diet together with the first forage samples and that's it until they wonder why the cows are lose and milk drops because the cows have Acidosiss or go the other way where muck goes stiff and a lot of undigested fibre because there's no sugar there to feed the Rumen. This is where an additive which controls fermentation would control this and would not allow a second fermentation so you have less variables.
More to life
Member
- Location
- Somerset
Phil do you sell addative ?
- Location
- Acton Scott, South Shropshire
Do you think a well sealed silage face from using a shear grab and moving across the feed face quickly - in say 2.5 days max - would reduce the risk of secondary fermentation? Especially if the clamp was only open between November and end Feb?
Pit maintainence is very important and yes, I say to some of my customers just take half a grab depth rather than a full grab so you get across the face far quicker, specially when it's been as warm as it has. The other one a fella pointed out to me and I pass on is when you cut the face keep the pressure downwards, don't cut and lift the clamp as this lets air in. Little things like this sound silly but makes a huge difference.
More to life
Member
- Location
- Somerset
That's why I've always used addative both grass and maize are stone cold all year I think it's a big step to stop I think I might try the first third clamped or so
It's part of a service we offer but it is not our main goal to sell additive. I would not try and sell it to someone I didn't think would benifit from it.
Which additive do you use? How was your maize this year?
- Location
- Acton Scott, South Shropshire
We are pretty fussy about our clamp face and we do use half depth cuts to speed up moving across the clamp.
Where we saw a problem earlier this year was secondary fermentation in a grass silage face being used in June/July - moving across face as fast as possible (only taking 8" deep cuts) but only using small quantities. We had used a very well known additive but in the hot weather we were working hard to keep it cool.
Where we saw a problem earlier this year was secondary fermentation in a grass silage face being used in June/July - moving across face as fast as possible (only taking 8" deep cuts) but only using small quantities. We had used a very well known additive but in the hot weather we were working hard to keep it cool.