The pre harvest period is an anxious time for farmers and growers; you are constantly racked with doubts and worries about the crop, the weather, the breakdowns. So what sort of pre harvest advice can be helpful when faced with so many uncontrollable issues?

To paraphrase many of the world’s great sporting coaches – ignore those things you can’t influence and control the controllables. It’s also good advice to keep busy for anyone worrying about upcoming events, from students pre exam nerves, to pregnant mothers to be. And there is loads to do. There are tractors to wash, machines to service, tyres to kick and nipples to grease but don’t overlook the clamp.

 Some consider a pre harvest clamp check as nothing more than shifting stuff out of the way, turning it from machinery park to silage clamp in one afternoon. But there is quite a bit more to think about. As with all good recipes, you probably should have started long before you even thought about it. That’s because some of the issues can take quite a long time to resolve. Clearly you will not have time to build a new clamp if the crop is already fast approaching harvest day. Having sufficient space for the crop is the subject for another in this series, so assuming the clamp is sufficient and serviceable then what do you need to do to get it ready for harvest?

 Clean it and check it over – as you would for a tractor or harvester, the clamp is just as vital. Where you might be cleaning the windows of the tractor to make your job in the cab a bit more pleasant, cleaning the clamp is somewhat more important. The entire process of silage making is relying on the good guy bacteria that come in with the crop. These need to get to work and produce the conditions that will preserve the crop and stop it turning into a stinking heap of waste. There are billions of bacteria involved, but they are in competition for dominance with the bad and the ugly guy bacteria. In order to minimise wastage and to promote a good fermentation, you can give the good guys a helping hand by making sure the clamp is clean and welcoming for them. So clean out any debris before washing the walls and floor with a pressure washer. If you have used the clamp as a temporary bulk feed store or as a muck bunker, or if the previous silage was a “poor fermentation”, then disinfect the surfaces as you wash.

 Don’t forget to tidy up the face of any remaining silage if the clamp isn’t completely empty as this is the number one spot for poor fermentation. Sloping the face at an angle will also aid compaction of the new crop and minimise the risk of trapped air pockets. Whilst the clamp is clean, take a good look at the overall structure and some areas in close detail. So what are you looking out for during the clamp inspection?

Cracks are the way a building structure tells you it’s history. Any sort of visible crack tells you the structure has been exposed to forces it probably wasn’t designed for. That doesn’t mean to say that the cracks are an indication of an impending disaster, but they do require you to take actions. If you’re an expert, record, repair or replace as necessary, if you’re not an expert, call in someone who is. Whatever you do, make sure you allow time for any inspections or repairs to be completed and curing in time for harvest. This is the point where you wish you had started earlier because some issues will take time to resolve and then might also require 28 days of curing prior to use.

 The key areas for inspection are, in no particular order:

·      Floor condition

·      Floor joints

·      External collection channel

·      Effluent tank

·      Wall condition

·      Wall joints

·      Safety rails

 As a general rule of thumb, we do not currently know of any construction materials that are completely immune to the actions of silage effluent. That means that you will need to carry out some sort of maintenance during the life of the silage clamp. That will probably include replacing some mastic sealant, repairing some concrete erosion and applying some surface protection. It is wise to assume you are going to need to do some repairs prior to harvest – that way you will build in a bit more time to get this sorted. The alternative is to hope for the best and we all know where that usually ends up.

 On the effluent side, you need to install the wall drains, clean out the gullies and check that the external collection channel is free flowing.  The effluent tank must be managed slightly differently – under NO circumstances should anyone ever enter a silage effluent tank. These are constructed from materials that do NOT require any maintenance over their design life. However they do still need to be checked, is the tank empty, is the overflow bung in place, is the vacuum tanker ready for action?

 Hopefully by the time you have completed all these tasks, the crop will be ready, the sun will be out and the machines will be raring to go.

 If want to share the worries about pre harvest clamp checks or any of the other aspects of silage making covered in this series – contact Jeremy Nash @ jeremynash1@btinternet.com