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Protecting Silage For Long-Term Quality

By Bruce Anderson

Many of you are chopping or about to chop silage, investing time and money to store good feed for your livestock. Sometimes, however, you may find that the top couple feet of silage has an off color, smells bad, or has spoiled.

After silage has been chopped and packed correctly, it still can be damaged seriously by air and moisture slowly penetrating the outer 3 to 4 feet.  Animals often eat less if the silage is moldy and can even experience health problems due to mycotoxins.  Good, well-eared silage can lose over 20% of its feed value from fermentation and spoilage under normal conditions.  Silage made from corn with little or no grain might have even greater losses. This loss can be cut in half, or even less, if covered well by a sheet of plastic.

Cover freshly chopped silage with black plastic immediately after you finish filling the trench, bunker, or pile.  Then cover the plastic with something to help hold it down.  Old tires are readily available and do a good job of keeping the plastic from blowing away.  But tires only keep the plastic in contact with the silage directly under the tire.  In between the tires, air can circulate and cause spoilage.  An even better choice would be a solid cover, something like freshly chopped forage or weeds, on top of the plastic. Then, the entire surface of the silage would be weighted and fully protected.

Source:unl.edu


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