Silage?

[Old Spot]

Ok bit late,
i usually wrap or feed hay.
cow numbers going up, we have a silage clamp.
it has been such along time since I made silage.
what is a good way of weighing down the sheet, do you use one or two top sheets
any guidance gratefully recievEd

 

[milkloss]

Suckers here. We use tyres to weigh down one layer of sheet. We are careful and have very few problems. Beef doesn’t pay for much more than that imo.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

I collected a lot of free tyres as I didn't know if I would be doing clamp for more than just the first trial year (and didn't want to spend too much), after years of throwing the tyres about, I got mats, which are far easier and better in my opinion, wish I had bought them to start with! I then had to pay £1 a tyre I think, to get them all removed. So if I was going to start with clamp again from scratch, I would either get tyre sidewalls or mats to weigh the sheet down (don't think I would use gravel filled bags) but definitely not tyres.

Tried a clear "cling film" sheet on top of the silage, absolutely brilliant, with a black sheet over it, then the top black sheet eventually gets cut in half lengthways and used as a sidewall sheet.

 

[Dr. Alkathene]

Don’t bother with tyres, get sidewalls instead. Much cleaner to work with, easy and quick to stack / unstack. Tidier than a heap of wet mucky tyres.

 

[Devonian]

For what it costs to make the stuff it's well worth sheeting it properly to eliminate waste, no matter what you are feeding it to. Obly need to save a tonne or two of waste to pay for the extra sheet. We use clingseal, which is a must in my opinion, followed by one or two black sheets on top. We put maize on top, so go for two as it seems to keep better, but you'd probably get away with one on top of the clingseal. Then tyres touching all over. Usually pick the scrap ones up for free from the tyre shops. Or if your feeling flush, buy a secure cover and gravel bags. Takes the pain out of chucking tyres for hours. We did it a few years back and it saves so much time both now and in the winter!

 

[Granite Farmer]

Silage sheet is the cheapest part pit silage making. I put sheets on the sides, then clingseal and two top sheets. This year it is weighed down with a heavy plastic net and a mixture of gravel bags and tyres.

 

[deleted user 837354]

The only problem with secure covers is they are so heavy that you need several people to roll and move them. Does eliminate the need for tyres all over though.

People complain about the cost of secure covers, lorry sidewalls or black sheet but are happy to spend thousands on bale wrap. Never understood it.

 

[michael N123]

I’ve thrown away my heavy hessian sheets that go on top of the plastic sheet got fed up with wind rain an snow unrolling it in middle of winter

now use a cling film clear sheet undera single layer of black plastic with the tyres touching and there’s less waste just throw a few rows of tyres off once a week it’s not hard

 

[shortshift]

oxygen barrier sheet, black sheet, net , tyre walls touching.

 

[@dlm]

Dad put up silage sheds in early 70s, presumably with grants? Big clamps but both covered, so buy in straw when winter over, most years very cheap, unless like this year people hang on expecting price to rocket with conditions. Saves a shed for straw storage, stack bales 2/ 3 high on black plastic sheet, same sheet for 7/8 years? Full of holes, bales cover holes so no waste, weight of bales eliminating any air means no spoilage of straw, though only do this as have these covered sheds. Rented a friend a clamp last year, very dry poor silage, used the cling film, no sheets on side, single black sheet, and used odd bales of mine on top. Not like me , several deep and touching, just around edges and odd ones here and there. Amazed no waste at all and left clamp better than went in. Big finisher of several 1000s has a huge outside pit a few miles away. It is huge, been there twice and still no idea of size, 60/70ft high? serious ft long. About 4 years ago stopped covering it at all. Good shed set up, good handling system, one man is bored feeding all these cattle. Waste despite hot summers and one end of clamp not used for 12 months was amazingly small. Wouldnt be very well rolled as literally a heap and impossible to roll well. Dangerous to be honest. But went there last a year ago, when they were silaging, so saw end of clamp from previous year, amazed how little waste at top, no labour, materials, appreciate making silage is expensive but this was an inceridible and suprising cost effective system

 

[ploughman1963]

Sleeper pit walls with loads of old nail heads in them. 2nd cut goes on top of first. We have evolved to black plastic on walls plus oxygen barrier. Oxygen barrier, black sheet, secure covers, mats on top of first cut. 2nd cut, reuse oxygen barrier off first plus new one then black sheet etc , all folded with side sheets. Clamp blows up like a massive pillow- full meter above the silage so we know we get a good seal!. Zero waste (occasionally one of those nail heads beats us!) and saving in silage losses (visible and invisible) more than pays for the extra plastic and work. No, we don’t reuse any of the plastic- we cut it off as we move back through the clamp as it makes clamp management so much easier and therefore it gets done properly.

 

[Munkul]

If it's properly consolidated and rolled all over, you can get away with less weight without too much hassle.
we use oxygen barrier film and one black sheet, 2 rows of tyres all the way around the edges and odd ones thrown across the middle.
Since moving to a contractor for chopping/buckraking 3 years ago, consolidation has been perfect and we have zero spoilage.

Before that, we tried all sorts, but because we buckraked with a 4.5ton tractor and never got it rolled down properly (roofed pits indoors), there would always be spoilage on top, no matter how well sheeted and tyred.

 

[Jim75]

Things have maybe moved on since I last covered a pit 10 yrs ago but is the oxygen barrier (cling film) worth it? Used to be side walls, 2 layers of black plastic on top, secure cover then some gravel bags.

 

[michael N123]

Things have maybe moved on since I last covered a pit 10 yrs ago but is the oxygen barrier (cling film) worth it? Used to be side walls, 2 layers of black plastic on top, secure cover then some gravel bags.

Made a massive difference to my silage use it every year now

 

[Jim75]

Made a massive difference to my silage use it every year now

what’s your process?

 

[michael N123]

what’s your process?

Cling film single layer of black plastic and tyres

used to put a hession heavy sheet on but don’t bother now

 

[jondear]

Things have maybe moved on since I last covered a pit 10 yrs ago but is the oxygen barrier (cling film) worth it? Used to be side walls, 2 layers of black plastic on top, secure cover then some gravel bags.

Yes every penny . Clingseal .one black sheet .Cover sheet and few gravel bags .Job done

 

[Jim75]

Cling film single layer of black plastic and tyres

used to put a hession heavy sheet on but don’t bother now

We’re on a particularly windy site so would probably go with secure covers or galebreaker. Where do you source the cling film and what sort of price

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Outside or in . Outside put a that last load of grass on top of the sheet, only sprincle , wetter stuff if you can , Depending on size more or less, water it with a hose pipe and spread some grass seed on top ,

 

[Tarw Coch]

We’re on a particularly windy site so would probably go with secure covers or galebreaker. Where do you source the cling film and what sort of price

I would have thought you’d be able to source cling film anywhere that sells silage sheets, certainly any of the places I’d by sheets from sell it.
As for price, can’t say I remember but somewhere In the same ball park as silage sheet