Should you be moving silage by lorry?
… we give little thought to hauling silage far far greater distances than our grand parents would ever consider. Bigger trailers, better brakes and fast tractors make it all seem a bit more do-able. But when does the distance become so great that you might consider a truck over a tractor?….There comes a tipping point (or should that be distance) where a truck becomes a more economical solution than a tractor and trailer. Every situation is different of course, but there will be a point where it makes sense to load a lorry rather than sticking with tractors and trailers. The truck itself is always going to be more expensive because it runs on normal pump diesel and pays a huge amount of road tax. Its driver also has limited driving hours too because of the tachograph laws, but because the truck can run at 44t gross weight rather than the 32t of a tractor and trailer, the driver does move more tonnes per hour.
Are remote silage clamps a good idea?
faced with land spread over half a dozen counties, where the hell do you build the silage clamps to hold all this stuff?
Mixing your silage menu to spread risk?
What springs to mind when someone says silage? For most of my generation it will be something to do with grass; either making silage with it or feeding it, but mostly it is still grass silage. And that’s for a good reason because grass silage has been the mainstay forage for decades, but things are changing. The changing climate has made growing forage for silage more unpredictable and there are new support initiatives in the UK that make some other crops look more financially attractive. So is it time to consider some of the alternatives to grass silage?
Why is Silage Effluent so pollutive?
there are a whole load of rules and regulations concerning how you deal with the stinky stuff. So exactly what is it about silage effluent that makes all those strict rules so necessary?
Why wet silage is bad silage
Our silage results are good apart from the low dry matter and low sugars, but why are the sugars so low? ….because there are three silage values that are tightly linked together, low dry matter, pH and available sugars.
Bale silage vs Clamp silage
Bite sized silage bales are first class for convenience but, when it comes to silage quality, bales are often considered as second class to clamp silage but is that fair?
Are fibres in concrete silo floors worth the cost?
Is it worth paying to have fibres added to your ready mix concrete for a new silage clamp?
Automated silage clamp sheeting - fantasy or future?
a machine that sheets the whole silage clamp, weighs the covers down and can also do the whole thing in reverse to open up for feeding
The temperature of silage and how hot is too hot?
it’s common knowledge that hot silage is not great silage, but silage does heat up during fermentation so when does this heat become a problem?
Choosing the right tedder to make good silage
Getting the right size tedder is important, too big is a waste of money (and a liability in the wrong hands) whilst too small will give you all sorts of headaches.
Silage or haylage?
Silage is wet at 20-45% DM, haylage drier perhaps 50-75% DM and hay has to be dry usually at least 88% dry matter, so does that put haylage in the Goldilocks zone, the best of both worlds?
Which silage inoculant should you choose?
If you have decided that silage inoculants can help you make better use of the forage you grow, then the obvious question is which one should you use
Is bagged silage better silage?
maybe silage in bags (or should that be silage sausages) offers the best of both worlds, the flexibility of bales without the building cost of clamps?
Is a silage shear grab worth the money?
the shear grab is an extremely valuable piece of kit that might just be the most important thing outside the milking parlour
Automated silage feeding robots - science fiction or the future?
If you’re not tempted to self feed cows, what other options are there to feed housed diary cows that don’t include a feeder wagon, tractor and loader that can still free up some time?
Can you build your own silage clamps?
Is it a good idea to use a specialist builder to construct your new silage clamp and how do you decide who to trust?
Steering silage trailers into the future
Steering the axles of a silage trailer can make the whole rig much more nimble and manoeuvrable in a tight spot… But manoeuvrability is only part of the story, steering trailer axles can also drastically reduce tyre wear - by up to 60% - and damage to grass sward in the field too.
Who should design a silage clamp?
…rules are there to make sure the silage stored in a clamp doesn’t cause pollution and that’s a good thing, ……in essence the rules are there to make sure someone has thought about the clamps and designed a compliant structure.
Is self feed silage back in fashion?
cows feeding themselves, and being milked by a robot, might be just nirvana. But for most (real world) dairy farmers the benefit of self feeding silage is all about saving costs. Costs in machinery and equipment, and perhaps labour too.