Forage Additives
We at RWN believe and can demonstrate both the benefits of using a silage additive and the costs associated with not using a silage additive.
Years of research clearly show the financial benefits of using a proven inoculant based silage additive as routine when ensiling forage irrespective of weather conditions.
Quality forage forms the basis of any high yielding dairy diet.
Adopting New Technology - The Challenge
In times of financial hardship there is always resistance to adopting new technology which is often seen as a cost, rather than as a means of reversing falling levels of profit. Biological silage inoculants and forage additives have been around for well over 20 years, yet many farmers still don't use them, preferring to wait until the crop is more mature and easier to ensile, and hope that there will be a spell of good weather.
Unfortunately once grass has headed the nutritional quality of the crop falls rapidly. Typically grass can lose 2 - 3 percentage points of protein and 2 - 3 units of digestibility in a week in a standing crop and much more in a lodged crop. In addition lodging is usually accompanied by rapid deterioration and high mould counts as the base of the crop begins to rot followed by high dry matter losses as much of the crop falls under the cutter bar at mowing.
Few farmers would consider grazing this mature grass, since they know that it has no milk in it, yet they are quite happy to spend money making it into low quality silage.
Far better to cut at the optimum D-value and invest in a silage additive in order to guarantee a well fermented clamp of high nutritive value
Conserved forage makes up well over 50% of the ration during the winter months on most UK dairy farms. To achieve optimum feed efficiency, production levels and profitability, it is essential that conserved forages retain as much of the nutrition of the growing crop at the time of harvest, as possible.
Why use a Silage Additive?
The case for using an effective biological inoculant based silage additive, irrespective of weather conditions is proven beyond doubt. Put quite simply, "If you use an additive you will generate more profit".
Let me stress that using an additive does not means that normal good ensiling practice or clamp management is any less important, on the contrary your pit will contain a higher value product containing more nutrients, attention to detail is paramount.
How do Biological Silage Inoculants and Additives work?
In an un-treated silage clamp, wild bacteria, yeasts and moulds grow on the crop consuming crop nutrients. Some of these bacteria in anaerobic conditions do ferment sugars and produce acids and will eventually conserve the crop. This natural uncontrolled fermentation process is relatively slowly and inefficient, generating high temperatures, high losses of dry matter and crop nutrients.
An effective biological additive contains, a range of specially selected
different strains of bacteria designed to inoculate the clamp taking over the fermentation.
These selected strains are generally around twice as efficient at converting sugar to
acid than those bacteria naturally present. Most are homo-fermentative strains which produce
lactic acid only, a strong acid which very rapidly stabilises the clamp at around 4.0
pH with minimal heating or nutrient loss. The process is much faster than a natural fermentation
and may be largely completed in days rather than weeks.
The most effective silage additives will apply at least 1 million CFU's of bacteria per gram of forage and will contain several different strains of bacteria to cope with a wide range of dry matter, temperatures, pH and nutrient conditions. Multi-strain inoculants are generally faster, more reliable and more efficient than single strain inoculants. Whilst most inoculant bacteria will produce plenty of enzymes themselves some additives also supply additional fibre digesting enzymes such as cellulase or hemicellulase to increase the amount of sugars available in the early stages of the fermentation for the inoculant bacteria to convert to acid.
How
an
Additive Makes Better Silage?
The benefits of using silage inoculants are now well established beyond doubt, through a wealth of trial work throughout the World, as well as years of observation in the field on commercial farms. Typically the use of an inoculant will speed up and improve the efficiency of the fermentation, rapidly reaching a stable pH.
Dry matter losses during the fermentation are reduced by on average around 4.5%, which is equivalent to an additional 45 tonnes of silage in a 1000 tonne clamp
Effluent levels are typically less than on untreated silage. Due to the rapid stabilisation of the clamp the amount of protein breakdown to free amino acids is greatly reduced. Treated silage will typically contain between 50% and 75% more bound, true protein than untreated silage. These proteins are more available to the animal and more readily used for production by the animal. Retained sugar levels are much higher, often more than double the levels found in untreated silage. IGER's work on High Sugar Grasses has clearly demonstrated the benefits to livestock performance from feeding forages which are high in sugar.
What Benefits will Livestock get from a Silage Additive?
Additive treated silages are more palatable, They contain more sugar and fermentable energy. They contain more better quality protein. Not surprisingly animals consistently perform better
when fed additive treated silages.
Dairy cows typically produce 1.25 - 1.5 litres more milk per day. Beef cattle, dairy heifers and youngstock will generally increase live weight gains by up to 40%.
Typically using a silage additive will result in a return on the investment of more than 5:1, or to put it another way, failure to invest £1000 in additive will probably cost you £5000 in lost income. Investing a similar amount in buying extra concentrates will not return this level of return on investment.
Issues facing Silage makers?
Greater use of contractors, more rapid pit filling with larger machinery, reduced nitrogen application, more attention to avoiding soil and slurry contamination, faster wilting behind modern mowers which leave a wide swath and more tedding has meant that butyric silages are much less common. The use of an additive is still extremely important, no longer as an insurance against bad weather but to improve the efficiency and speed of fermentation in order to retain nutrients. Our aim is to produce silage as close in feed value to the growing crop as possible.
Bigger machinery and use of contractors has created a new problem. We want wilted, higher dry matter silage with high sugar levels. The problem now is that silage comes in so fast that on the majority of farms it is impossible to roll enough to give sufficient consolidation to completely prevent excessive heating during the fermentation followed by aerobic instability, heating and moulding on the silage face during use. this is a particular problem with mature, high dry matter crops containing plenty of retained sugar.
Aerobic Instability - Controlling Heating in Silages
Silage making is an anaerobic fermentation process, there is no substitute
for good consolidation and good sealing. As a guide, if you can push your fingers more
than 1cm into a silage face it is insufficiently rolled. Doubling the density of the silage
has been shown to reduce in clamp dry matter losses from 20% to 10%. This explains why
the bottom third of the clamp is often more stable, better fermented and feeds better
than the top third. More time spent on rolling, additional clamp space to avoid overfilling
and use of Silostop Oxygen Barrier Sheet is well worth the investment
.
Cutting younger, higher D-Value material will help consolidation and reduce heating. Mature, higher fibre, higher dry matter silages, low in crude protein and high in sugars will have more potential to heat on the face. Even on well consolidated high dry matter silages, there will be a tendency to heat, unless usage is rapid. Having gone to great lengths to grow forages with a high sugar content, we must minimize losses of these sugars to aerobic activity of yeasts and moulds at the silage face.
Most silage inoculants on the market today are still based on homo-fermentative lactic acid producing bacteria. These were originally developed 20 - 30 years ago when silages were poorly wilted, often below 20% dry matter, high in nitrates and crude protein as a consequence of heavy applications of ammonium nitrate fertiliser. The main objective then was to prevent the silage from going butyric. Lactic acid based inoculants are effective in dropping pH rapidly and efficiently in wet silages.
Are Most Silages now too Dry for Standard Silage Additives?
Average UK silages are now well over 30% dry matter. Pits above 25% DM are prone to heating. Lactic acid based inoculants are not particularly effective in controlling heating in well preserved silages above 25% dry matter. The reason for this is that where heating occurs, spoilage organisms, in particular lactate assimilating yeasts feed off the lactic acid using it as an energy source and effectively remove the preservation of the silage. Consequently we now recommend standard lactic only products for use only with forages below 25% - 28% DM. Lactic acid only products can no longer be considered the best additve for dry silages over 25% dry mattter.
An
alternative option has been to use an inoculant additive which includes chemical food preservatives such
as Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Benzoate or Sulphites which can be effective in restricting the development
of yeasts and fungi. The use of chemical preservatives however is is generally more costly than using
an inoculant and is less effective in preserving lower dry matter silages.
Richard Webster Nutrition has developed a range of inoculants which overcomes these problems. These advanced inoculants produces a range of acids including acetic acid, proprionic acid and other anti-microbials and do not rely on lactic acid alone as a preservative. These new high specification forage additives, over several years have been shown to be far more effective in maintaining face stability and reducing nutrient losses than other additives currently available.
The Gold Shake Additive Range
Based on many years experience working with silage additives in the field on UK dairy farms, we believe that the additives we offer are second to none. Our advanced Gold Shake Range formulations are effective in preserving a wide range of forages including high dry matter grass silages, big bales, maize silage, wholecrop cereal silage and crimped cereals.
Gold Shake Arable and Gold Shake Premium have been shown to be effective in preventing heating over a very wide range of dry matter levels. As well as being generally both more effective and more cost effective than chemical preservatives in high dry matter silages, these products are equally effective in preserving low dry matter forages.
Gold Shake Arable and Gold Shake Premium produce a range of acids and anti-microbials
including acetic acid and proprionic acid which are not easily broken down and are much
more effective than lactic acid in controlling heating in high dry matter silages. Vinegar
(acetic acid) and Propcorn (propionic acid) and not lactic acid has been widely used
for generations for preserving food in the kitchen and rolled cereals on the farm.
More and farmers are seeing the benefits of using an inoculant which gives improved aerobic stability and reduces heating in the clamp. Gold Shake Arable has been shown to reduce yeast and mould contamination in high dry matter silages by up to 99%. Better quality silage with less heating both on the silage face and in the TMR often result in better dry matter intakes and improved milk yields. Reduced mycotoxin levels and improved energy intakes can also result in improved health and fertility in the cows.
Our silage additives are designed for maximum nutritional benefit to the cow,
for proven reliability and for maximum profit for the farmer
The Gold Shake Range of silage additives is a high tech, state of the art new generation forage additives. Gold Shake 50, Gold Shake Premium, Gold Shake Arable, Rapidsile Gold and Ice-Gold.
At last we have a range of silage inoculants which not only produces a fast, efficient silage fermentation but also results in a forage with excellent aerobic face stability. A safe, cost effective, biological solution to the problem of heating and spoilage in silage clamps. Not only do these products reduce the risk of mycotoxins, but by preventing heating they reduce losses of valuable sugars and other nutrients from the forage.
Gold Shake forage additives are extremely cost effective
Typically all the conserved forage on the farm can be treated for around 3p - 5p per cow per day. This is an extremely small price compared with potential saving due to reduced clamp losses of up to 5% and milk yield responses of up to 1.5 litres of milk per cow per day.
The Gold Shake range of silage additives offer major advances
in terms of
efficiency, ease of use and aerobic stability
The
Gold Shake Range is normally applied using a conventional applicator at between 0.5 - 2.0 litres per
tonne of forage. Alternatively Gold Shake additives can also be applied through low volume applicators
at rates as low as 80ml / tonne of forage and are also available in ULV form for Ultra
Low Volume application down to 20ml / tonne of forage or in granular form for use in granular
silage applicators.
Additionally within the range Ice Gold is a bacterial inoculant combined with a food preservative in the form of potassium sorbate as an alternative approach to preserving high dry matter forages.
To make the best silage our advice is to always use an additive. Call us now to discuss which is the best silage additive for your silage. The best additive for your silage will depend on various factors.
For maximum profit all conserved forage should be treated with
an effective silage additive as a matter of course
Contact Richard Webster for advice on minimising losses in silage making and crop conservation.
Improved forage conservation techniques can have a dramatic effect on the overall profitability of your dairy farm business