We have seen an increase in the amount of corn and sorghum silage samples coming into our labs for testing in the past few weeks. Did you know that the quality of the silage you make can impact of your animal’s intake and productivity?
Here are a few quick tips that might be able to increase the Quality Assurance on Silage you are making.
- Cutting time
Don’t let your crop mature too much before deciding to cut it. The nutritional quality will begin to decrease as the plant ages leading to an increase in the fibre content and a decrease in the sugar content.
- Wilting
It is important to consider the time of day that you cut your silage as this will have an impact on the wilting time. You want to aim for your crop to wilt as quickly as possible once it has been cut but you also don’t want to dry it out too much. It may be beneficial to wait to cut your crop until mid afternoon when the heat intensity of the day has decreased.
- Harvesting
Aim to harvest within a 24-48 hour period after your crop has been cut. Moisture plays and important role in the timing of harvesting as you want to aim for a moisture range of between 40-50% for baled silage and 32-38% for pit silage.
- Storage
Ensure that your bales/pit have an air tight seal as the fermentation process cannot start until all the oxygen has been used up. As long as no oxygen gets into your silage once the fermentation process has occurred, your silage can remain unchanged for several years.
- Testing
Let your silage ensile for 2-3 weeks prior to taking a sample for testing as this will allow for the fermentation process to occur.
