Quality silage is crucial to ensuring your cows get the best nutrition. However, achieving high-quality silage means avoiding common mistakes, especially when sheeting your silage clamp.
Here are five mistakes you should avoid to keep your silage in top-notch condition.
- Not using side sheets.
Side sheets are vital for creating an airtight seal along the walls of your silage clamp. Skipping them can allow air to enter through the shoulders, leading to spoilage.
To avoid this, make sure you:
- Use a side wall sheet taller than your walls. If your walls are 3m tall, a 5m wide sheet will work well.
- Once the clamp is full, fold the side wall sheet over the top of the clamp by about 1m, and then lay the top sheet. This will prevent rainwater from entering the clamp.
- Apply plenty of weight along the shoulders by using gravel bags to create an airtight seal and prevent oxygen ingress.
Follow these steps and you'll significantly reduce the amount of spoilage along the shoulders of your clamp.
- Not using enough weight.
Once you've sheeted and covered your clamp, you must seal it to prevent oxygen ingress, which can lead to spoilage.
Here’s how to do it right:
- Apply gravel bags that weigh at least 12kg each, end-to-end, around the perimeter and along any joins where sheets overlap.
- Place rows of gravel bags every 10m from left to right across the clamp, and every 5m in windy areas. This will hold your sheets and covers in place.
- If your clamp has steep sides, consider using gravel bag belts to hold the bags in place and prevent them falling off the clamp.
When it comes to gravel bags, more is always better. The goal is to make your clamp airtight, so use as many bags as you need to create an airtight seal.
- Not overlapping sheets enough.
When using more than one silage sheet, don't skimp on the overlap where the two sheets meet. Here's why:
- Joins or overlaps provide an easier route for oxygen to enter your clamp, which leads to spoilage.
- Overlap the sheets by at least 1m and hold in place with gravel bags along the entire length of the join.
- This will prevent oxygen from finding its way into your clamp.
Remember, don't skimp on the overlap. The bigger the better, as long as plenty of weight is used to seal the join.
- Not sealing quickly.
Sealing your silage quickly after harvesting is crucial for fermentation. If the silage is exposed to air for too long, it can lead to waste.
Follow these steps to do it right:
- Sheet and seal the clamp as soon as it's full and compacted as much as possible.
- Avoid leaving the silage exposed overnight if possible.
Sheeting and sealing your clamp quickly once it's full will ensure silage quality and prevent spoilage.
- Overfilling the clamp.
Overfilling your silage clamp can reduce silage density and compaction.
- Don’t fill more than 0.3 meters above the wall height.
- Density drops significantly above wall height.
- Air ingress and poor fermentation are increased.
Keeping the fill height in check ensures your silage is well-compacted and less prone to air exposure.
Paying attention to details like sheeting, weighting, sealing speed, and fill height can significantly improve silage quality.
By avoiding these common mistakes, you’ll ensure your silage is well-preserved, providing high-quality feed for your cows.
