Moving Silage

We all need to move silage, from the field to the clamp, from the clamp to the cattle or the digester. But what about moving silage from one clamp to another – how possible is that?

Can you move silage and successfully re-store it?

In short you can, and quite a few producers do, but let’s look first at why you should think twice before you move silage. The key thing to remember is that silage isn’t just a method to store an unstable perishable crop. Silage differs from grains and root crops in that it remains vulnerable to spoiling. With grain, once the moisture and temperature are under control, you can handle and move it like any stable bulk product. Silage is different so you can’t treat it like grain. If it we sold in the supermarkets, silage would be labelled “refrigerate once opened and use within one week”. Once you remove it from its storage, it will start to spoil and lose feed value.

So ideally you would never move a silage once it is clamped. It’s far, far better to transport it to where it’s needed and clamp it there than to clamp it close to where it’s grown and move it later. Avoid the temptation to speed up the harvest and build a clamp miles from the point of use. Better to arrange some suitable harvest road transport and store all the feed back at the farm, or AD plant, where it will be used. That’s the ideal but, as we all well know, the world isn’t ideal .

Why is moving silage a bad idea?

It all comes down to oxygen; and oxygen, as we know, is the enemy of the ensiling process.

As soon as silage is exposed to oxygen the micro organisms within the crop kick into life and start consuming the feed value of the crop. This burns up the energy and proteins in the crop that you rely on to feed the livestock or bugs in the AD plant. Not only that, but the yeasts and moulds in the silage will also be producing by-products that can be unpalatable and even toxic in the silage. So leaving the silage where it was made in airtight conditions should always be the aim.

How can you move silage?

Hopefully whatever you need to move will be maize or wholecrop silage as these have better results than traditional grass silages. Shorter chop lengths and dry matters towards the higher end of target also tend to fair better when re-clamped. So if your harvest plan includes temporary storage and subsequent move of the silage to the point of use then you can hopefully get the product right at harvest. These requirements will also help if you are intending the temporary store to be a field clamp or heap.

The activity of the microorganisms in the silage is dependant on the ambient temperature. Therefore if you are planning to move silage you should be doing this in the coldest conditions possible. Do it in sub zero conditions and you have the very best chance to control the losses. If you can, empty a clamp ready for the incoming silage as soon as possible and then hold off the operation until the weather is in your favour.

Once you decide to move the silage, do it a quickly as you safely can. As it arrives at the new clamp, treat it like you would fresh incoming crop. Get it into the clamp in thin layers and expel as much air as possible by rolling and compacting. This is where a shorter chop length will work in your favour, as it will compact better with less trapped air. Use all the tricks to get a good compaction, high tyre pressures; “train wheel” compactors will all help.

Should I add salt to my silage?

If you are moving silage, secondary fermentation and yeast spoiling will be a risk. Creating conditions that reduce these problems is sensible. Adding a standard lactobacillus inoculant might not be the best solution. Lactobacillus planetarium (common in most inoculants) produce lactic acid but yeasts common in higher dry matter silage can survive even very high lactic acid concentrations. Better to select a Lactobacillus Buchneri inoculant as these produce acetic acids. Yeasts struggle in these conditions and so aerobic instability is much less likely. The down side of an inoculant is that the bacteria it contains use up crop feed values to produce the acetic acid. You therefore have to use some of the energy to preserve the rest of the silage.

An alternative is to use salts to save your silage. Potassium Sorbate acts as a preservative salt and creates conditions very similar to high acetic acid fermentations. This will restrict the actions of the yeasts until anaerobic conditions are re-established.

As with any clamping of material, get the cover on it quickly. Use a higher tech covering than the traditional black sheets. Oxygen barrier cling films are even more useful when re-sealing silage that has been moved. Once clamped, leave the silage for a couple of weeks to become stable. If you need material in this period store it elsewhere so you don’t need to disturb the re-clamp.

So if you really, really need to move silage, you can, as long as you do it correctly. If you need further information or help on moving silage, or for any of the other aspects of silage making covered in this series – contact Jeremy Nash @ jeremynash1@btinternet.com

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