Reduce silage-making losses on the farm

Losses are increased as short particles of grass are dropped onto the ground, which are missed by the harvester. Uneven mowing due to uneven ground or lodged grass will lead to the harvester leaving grass behind.

Losses in quality and quantity occur during silage making. Of every 1000 kg grass dry matter in a silage sward, between 150 over 300 kg does not make it into the animal’s mouth as silage. Furthermore, the digestibility of the ingested silage can be up to 7% units below the digestibility of the silage sward. These losses occur in the field through leaf shatter, respiration, leaching by rain, incomplete pickup and soil contamination, at the silo during filling, through effluent, poor fermentation etc. and during feeding through respiration and spillage etc. The actual loss rate will vary depending on the crop involved, the silage making system, the standard of management and the weather conditions.

Some of these losses are unavoidable but others can be greatly reduced or prevented. For example, a sward yielding 6000 kg grass DM/ha produces 5040, 4620 and 4200 kg edible silage DM/ha where quantitative losses of 16% (excellent management), 23% (good management) and 30% (poor management) occur. Corresponding quality losses could be 0, 1.5 and 4% units digestibility. The digestibility loss difference of 0 vs. 4% units digestibility requires over 1 kg concentrate/animal daily to undo. These values demonstrate the importance of management practices that reduce losses during silage production and feedout. They include efficient mowing, conditioning and pick-up, effective wilting during good drying weather, fast filling and perfect sealing of the silo, ensuring good fermentation and relatively little effluent, fast and tidy feed-out, and sensible feed provision and waste removal at the feed trough.