Silage Additive

[Phil87]

It isn't easy is it? But all we can do is try. How has your silage tested?

 

[Great In Grass]

Remember all trail work is sponsored I trust very little these days

The most interesting work are the results that are found by manufactures of inoculants of other peoples products, quite an eye opener.

 

[Tarw Coch]

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?

Didn't you say earlier that you only had 1 ton of waste in a 1000? Now you're saying that waste is on the top shoulders so doubt 1 ton of waste there will pay for a lot of additive.

 

[ploughman1963]

Didn't you say earlier that you only had 1 ton of waste in a 1000? Now you're saying that waste is on the top shoulders so doubt 1 ton of waste there will pay for a lot of additive.

No, I said less than a ton of waste on that 100o t clamp - I was suggesting that if we stopped using additive then the most likely area that we would perhaps get waste was the top and shoulders

 

[Great In Grass]

Fancy I might trust an independent telling me I dont need to buy something than a sales rep telling me I do

Isn't being a farmer also include being a salesman at some point?

 

[Great In Grass]

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.

There is NO way an inoculant is going to increase the ME or protein for that matter of the ensiled grass silage not even if it's sprinkled with fairy dust. The best you can hope for is for the inoculant to keep the quality of the grass as close to that that was cut. You can't make a silk purse out of a pigs ear!

 

[Phil87]

No, I said less than a ton of waste on that 100o t clamp - I was suggesting that if we stopped using additive then the most likely area that we would perhaps get waste was the top and shoulders

That's blumin good going, I would say this warm back end would test any Additive on the market.

 

[Phil87]

There is NO way an inoculant is going to increase the ME or protein for that matter of the ensiled grass silage not even if it's sprinkled with fairy dust. The best you can hope for is for the inoculant to keep the quality of the grass as close to that that was cut. You can't make a silk purse out of a pigs ear!

I disagree, I believe if you stop the secondry fermentation you arnt going to loose the energy hence getting more energy than you might have done if you didn't use an additive.

 

[Great In Grass]

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.

Always strikes me strange that anything but dairy animals don't deserve good quality forage . If your going to feed your maize over winter I wouldn't bother treating it.

 

[Great In Grass]

I disagree, I believe if you stop the secondry fermentation you arnt going to loose the energy hence getting more energy than you might have done if you didn't use an additive.

I think you may have your wording wrong, you are right in that you will help prevent the lose of energy, so for example keeping a ME as close as possible to the cut grass but your never going to increase the initial figure (it's impossible).

 

[Phil87]

Yes I agree, sorry sir...

 

[More to life]

Which additive do you use? How was your maize this year?

Let's just say it's dear one so cutting back is attractive, maize was late nov harvest good yield but starch is well down as is the DM total ME is ok it looks better in the clamp than expected

 

[Great In Grass]

That's what got me thinking, is it a real gain ?you can get abit of kit that measures the sugar in grass and make a judgment. I wish I had a second small clamp to try it out

@scholland did such a trial this past season once he's recovered from hogmanay he may give us his thought's .

One thing you can do is if the grass is treated get a couple of good strong black bin bags and put one inside the other then fill with untreated grass and place it in the clamp and cover, when you feed out and come across them it will give you an idea of what the untreated grass could of been like regarding what it looks like and smell.

 

[Great In Grass]

Let's just say it's dear one so cutting back is attractive, maize was late nov harvest good yield but starch is well down as is the DM total ME is ok it looks better in the clamp than expected

What would be "dear"?

 

[Phil87]

Let's just say it's dear one so cutting back is attractive, maize was late nov harvest good yield but starch is well down as is the DM total ME is ok it looks better in the clamp than expected

How much is dear?

 

[Gulli]

Always strikes me strange that anything but dairy animals don't deserve good quality forage . If your going to feed your maize over winter I wouldn't bother treating it.

We make good quality but there's no need to feed rocket fuel to dry suckler cows it's a job to stop them getting fat as it is. Especially heifers.
It's a difficult balance as we are trying to grow store stock as well as I can't see the point in holding them back through the winter. They might as well work hard through the winter if we are going to house them.

Biggest issue with maize is getting it cool enough to feed out quickly as there isn't a lot of time between clamping and opening it up to feed out. We often cut it a bit green due to our lovely wet ground so end up with more waste than I would like

 

[Tarw Coch]

No, I said less than a ton of waste on that 100o t clamp - I was suggesting that if we stopped using additive then the most likely area that we would perhaps get waste was the top and shoulders

So at the moment you have virtually no waste. How many tons of waste silage would equal your spend on additive? And that's without any additional losses in the quality of your silage from not using an additive.
It's easy to see the amount we spend on additive, not so easy to see any gains we get from using it or losses from not using it.

 

[Phil87]

That's an interesting one, what do you value a tonne of good silage at?

 

[Great In Grass]

So at the moment you have virtually no waste. How many tons of waste silage would equal your spend on additive? And that's without any additional losses in the quality of your silage from not using an additive.
It's easy to see the amount we spend on additive, not so easy to see any gains we get from using it or losses from not using it.

When you first started using an inoculant did you see an increase in voluntary intake, I've had many a comment over the years by new users that they ran out of silage quicker than in previous years.

 

[CORNFLAKE]

We returned to using an additive this year following many years without using it, since exiting dairy. I have to say I have been greatly impressed with the product we purchased from Great in Grass. It has kept the silage really stable and cool, intakes are fantastic and waste is minimal. We finish cattle now and I think good quality forage is as important with this enterprise as it was with dairying. I'll definitely be ordering again. Does that endorsement qualify me for mates rates then Great in Grass