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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 / enzyme based silage additive as routine when ensiling forage irrespective of weather conditions. Quality forage forms the basis of any high yielding dairy diet |
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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. |
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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. |
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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? |
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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. |
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How do Biological Additives work? Natural bacteria in an un-treated silage clamp ferment sugars anaerobically to produce acids relatively slowly and inefficiently, generating high temperatures, high dry matter losses and loss of nutrients but eventually reducing the pH of the clamp effectively pickling or ensiling the crop. 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 stabilizes 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. |
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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 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. Most modern additives also contain fibre digesting enzymes such as cellulase or hemicellulase which are designed to rapidly increase the amount of sugars available in the early stages of the fermentation in order to provide additional sugars for the inoculant bacteria to convert to acid. |
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What Effect will an Additive have on the 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 stabilization 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 an Additive? |
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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 generally produce 1.25 - 1.5 litres more milk per day, usually of better quality. Beef cattle and youngstock will grow up to 40% faster. Typically using a silage additive will result in a return on the investment of 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. |
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What are the 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. we need 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 the Heat |
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Cutting younger, higher D-Value
material will help consolidation and reduce heating. Mature, high fibre,
high dry matter silages treated with an inoculant, will contain more
sugars which increases the potential to heat on the face. However making
low sugar, low dry matter, low pH silage isn't the answer. Cows need drier
silages with more sugar. Lactic acid producing homo-fermentative bacteria
will not improve aerobic stability in poorly consolidated silage. |
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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, wilted to concentrate the sugars and to restrict the fermentation, we definitely must avoid losing those sugars to aerobic activity of yeasts and moulds at the silage face. We have two options within our additive range to prevent this heating, both are effective. The first option is to use an inoculant / enzyme additive which includes the human food grade preservatives Potassium Sorbate and Sodium Benzoate which are very effective in restricting the development of a wide range of yeast and fungi. The second option is to use new selected strains of hetero-fermentative bacteria within an inoculant enzyme additive which as well as producing lactic acid also produce a range of other organic acids and natural anti-microbial compounds which have also proven extremely effective at preventing heating on well rolled high dry matter fermented wholecrop cereal, maize and grass silages. Our Products |
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We offer a wide range of
biological silage additives from two sources to cover all ensiling
situations. The Alltech Sil-All Range |
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Our Forage Additives include Sil-All4x4, Maize-All and Sil-All Fireguard which are produced by Alltech, global market leaders in biotechnology products, silage and forage additives. Alltech offer a comprehensive range of silage additives well proven over many years on a wide range of conserved forages to give guaranteed confidence Every Season, Every Cut, Every Time. |
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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 and Ice-Gold. At last we have a silage inoculant 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 of high dry matter grass silage, maize silage and wholecrop cereal silages. Not only do these products prevent the build up of mycotoxins, but by preventing heating they prevent the loss of valuable sugars from the forage. The Gold Shake Range is suitable for low volume application at rates as low as 80ml / tonne of forage. Alternatively Gold Shake can be applied using a conventional applicator at between 0.5 - 2.0 litres per tonne of forage. |
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The Gold Shake range
of silage additives offer major advances in terms of efficiency, |
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For
maximum profit all conserved forage should be treated with an
effective silage additive |
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Working together for a more profitable future |
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