Silage

[Hilly]

What - 10, ohh please would you hold my hand

-20 sometimes , 2’ snow with 12’ drifts , that’s not the problem the problem is it starts at October and goes on till June that’s the problem, snow in the depths of winter is just the icing on the cake

 

[puppet]

This is getting like the Monty Python sketch living in a shoe...

..... 12 feet, you were lucky....we lived in a snow drift one winter

 

[Hilly]

Ofcourse you get this as well !!

 

[Hilly]

This is getting like the Monty Python sketch living in a shoe...

..... 12 feet, you were lucky....we lived in a snow drift one winter

Probably every other winter we will have 12’ drifts , still had snow on tops end of June this year

 

[puppet]

I only remember 3 winters with huge drifts. 1963 (just), 1995 and 2013. Beast from the East spared us over here

 

[Hilly]

I only remember 3 winters with huge drifts. 1963 (just), 1995 and 2013. Beast from the East spared us over here

 

[puppet]

Oh, I forgot. It was sometimes a bit frosty. Feb 2021

 

[Kevtherev]

IIRC the use of acid wasn’t to aid fermentation but to pickle the grass for want of a better word.
Not that I’ve any experience of using acid, Add F I think it was

Evil stuff and would rot the forager and trailers rapidly

 

[betweenthelines]

Why not go the whole hog?

Make a clamp in every 2 or 3 field and cover the clamps with lime.

Be interested if someone would work out where the loss in silage quality is offset by the savings in harvesting costs

 

[upnortheast]

Why not go the whole hog?

Make a clamp in every 2 or 3 field and cover the clamps with lime.

Be interested if someone would work out where the loss in silage quality is offset by the savings in harvesting costs

What about the mess & losses getting it back to the yard in a wet winter

 

[Hilly]

What about the mess & losses getting it back to the yard in a wet winter

That’s the bother with that idea

 

[puntabrava]

-20 sometimes , 2’ snow with 12’ drifts , that’s not the problem the problem is it starts at October and goes on till June that’s the problem, snow in the depths of winter is just the icing on the cake

We dont get much snow, your not realising when it’s all honey.

 

[Hilly]

We dont get much snow, your not realising when it’s all honey.

I don’t mind the snow to be honest if it’s in the season of winter , the issues start when it comes in spring , you should sell up and get up here you’d like it , you just need to be in the fertile end not the poverty end I’m in

 

[puntabrava]

I don’t mind the snow to be honest if it’s in the season of winter , the issues start when it comes in spring , you should sell up and get up here you’d like it , you just need to be in the fertile end not the poverty end I’m in

my liver couldn’t hack it

 

[Bob the beef]

-20 sometimes , 2’ snow with 12’ drifts , that’s not the problem the problem is it starts at October and goes on till June that’s the problem, snow in the depths of winter is just the icing on the cake

@Hilly you’re not selling the beautiful Scottish Borders
Really, it’s not as bad as that all the time. Only every second year

 

[Jackov Altraids]

Probably ok for some second rate suckler cow fodder, but not for a dairy ration, where you want to make as good a fodder as possible.

I understand the sentiment that suckler cows can happily live on a poorer quality ration but the idea that anyone doesn't make fodder that is as good as possible is just preposterous.

 

[neilo]

I understand the sentiment that suckler cows can happily live on a poorer quality ration but the idea that anyone doesn't make fodder that is as good as possible is just preposterous.

Really? We used to deliberately make poorer quality silage for the dairy heifers’ yard every year. As a self feed pit, there wasn’t much point in making top quality stuff, then trying to somehow dilute it with hay or straw.

 

[Jackov Altraids]

from what I been told it was more the pace it came in at been so slow that the ferment wasn’t as good a pit sitting open over a weeks no good

We used to keep the pit open for weeks but would be sure to keep adding a fresh top layer and it always tested as being excellent with little / no waste.

 

[kiwi pom]

Why do we chop it ? Why can’t I just load trailers with handler run down row push up a heap load trailer tip in pit repeat ? Why bother with the expensive bit ?

Chopping it into bits, blowing it into a trailer (get more in if its chopped) and tipping it in a pile makes a whole lot more sense to me than trying to put string/net/plastic around little individual bits, especially if the grass has to lay out to dry for a week in the UK climate, whiles someone drives up and down tedding it out all day and praying it doesn't rain.
That really is madness.

 

[jondear]

We had some second cut done with a forage wagon when they first came out. It was awful stuff as we couldn’t get the air out of it properly.
It was put in the pit over the top of the first cut, which had been picked up with a SPF, and it was like chalk and cheese.

Probably ok for some second rate suckler cow fodder, but not for a dairy ration, where you want to make as good a fodder as possible.

I think they have changed a bit since then ! Must not be to old ,to dry and needs a cling seal and good compaction .