Download Making The Most of Grass Silage

Making The Most of Grass Silage
Grass silage has been the predominant forage for livestock farmers for many
years.
It provides a source of forage for maintaining milk production whenever grazing is
limited or during the winter months. Grass silage has the potential to produce a
relatively high energy, high protein feed that requires minimal supplementation under
the correct conditions.
Grass silage requires a high level of management input to achieve high yields and
good quality. The use of additives over the years has helped the fermentation process
and the preservation of important nutrients. Additives must be specific to the
conditions experienced by the crop.
If silage quality is below target, then predicted animal performance for the whole of
the feeding period may be compromised; additional supplementation will be required
to reach milk yield targets and there can be knock–on effects on milk quality. In
reality, the outcome of two or three days’ work will determine success or otherwise
for the whole winter.
This is why so much effort has been put into developing grass silage-making systems
over the years - to try and improve quality and to minimise the risk from bad weather.
Microbial technology should be used to improve the fermentation quality and the
feeding value, by using the correct combination of bacteria and enzymes.
The use of a crop (dry matter) specific additive to ensure consistent fermentation
throughout the whole clamp is essential for producing high quality grass silage.
Nutrient quality and intake characteristics deteriorate throughout the fermentation
period, hence the faster the fermentation, the better. To achieve a good fermentation,
the pH level of the crop has to drop from around 6.5 to 4.0 as quickly as possible.
The most effective inoculants will achieve this target within a day. Inoculants aid the
natural fermentation process by adding selected lactic acid producing bacteria to the
forage crop. These convert sugars in the forage to lactic acid and help reduce the pH
quickly with the minimum loss of nutrients.
Even in the best ensiling conditions, this will happen more slowly without an additive,
leading to a loss of nutrients and reduced animal performance. Lactic bacterial counts
vary with time from ensiling, reaching more than one billion per gram at peak and
declining to a background level (100 – 1000/g) with prolonged storage.
Some specific bacteria also prevent spoilage by yeasts and moulds, which are the
main spoilage organisms in higher, dry matter silages and forages.
Biotal AxpHast Gold is the premium grass additive from Biotal for use on lower dry
matter grass silage. It gives the producer more flexibility by increasing the dry matter
range in which the product can be used. AxpHast Gold contains Biotal’s proprietary
lactic acid producing bacteria as well as a specific strain of bacteria called L.
buchneri. This enables AxpHast Gold to be used from 20 to 30% dry matter.
Enzymes are used to break down specific fractions of the fibrous material in the
forage to release extra fermentable sugars for conversion by the bacteria to lactic acid.
The accessibility of the cellulose in the plant can be improved by breaking down
specific hemicellulose fractions with the patented enzymes in Axphast Gold. This
helps effluent retention and improves the rate of digestibility.
Using AxpHast Gold on lower dry matter grass silage has been shown to have
significant effects on milk production and animal performance in independent trials at
ARINI (Hillsborough).
Grass silage faces very different fermentation challenges in wet and dry
weather/harvest conditions. Preservation and feedout characteristics can be
dramatically affected if specific silage additives aren’t applied to suit different
conditions.
Many companies claim to have ‘one’ product for all conditions but producers must be
aware of the need for specific products to overcome the problems associated with
ensiling grass in wet and dry weather.
(Source – Farming Life – 07/04/2015)