My Life in Silage
It all began in 1969….
Our family dairy farm planned a change to the traditional summer hay fodder. My father decided barn dried hay was the solution but I had different ideas.
In an attempt to convince the family that our Guernsey cows would do better on silage, I set up my own on farm trials utilizing a disused pigsty as the clamp. The verges in the old lane were cut and ensiled and the clamp sheeted with old fertilizer sacks. I stood back and waited for the magic to happen.
But it didn’t - at the age of 4 I realized that there was more to this silage lark than I thought there was. For most of my education I studied silage as a non curricular activity. At Harper Adams I studied it to degree level, and for the next 30 years I studied it on a very practical level. Throughout these years of designing, building and operating silage clamps it has become apparent that the time has not been wasted. I have had the privilege to visit hundreds of farms and design clamps from a few hundred tonnes to tens of thousands of tonnes. More recently much of my concentration has been on large scale clamps for the AD & Biogas industry. But whatever the size or scale, be it on farm or AD plant, you can benefit from my experience. The magic of the silage process continues to fascinate and intrigue me.