How to bale maize silage

Bale silage sometimes gets a bad rap; not a bad wrap. It’s not uncommon for clamp silage to be seen as superior and that bales are the poor relation. I have argued the point before but there is no fundamental reason why bale silage couldn’t be at least as good as that made in a clamp. And there are situations when bales are better, but traditionally silage bales have meant grass silage, so what about other crops. How can you make the most of maize or corn silage if you don’t have a clamp, or is it possible to bale maize or wholecrop silage?

Can you bale maize silage?

Swift answer to that questions is yes you can, but before getting into the how’s I think we need to look at the why’s. Why exactly would you want to feed maize (or corn silage) in bales? I guess there are two view points with this; firstly if you can’t (or don’t) have a clamp, and secondly if you just want to choose bales anyway.

Maize is a great energy feed for both livestock and AD plants so it’s certainly something that your nutritionist will be interested in. The crop has some specific growing requirements, but given half a chance of decent conditions, maize can produce a very competitively priced source of mega joules. New varieties have increased the range of conditions that the crop can thrive or survive in, so many farmers in more northern locations are now able to consider maize silage. But if you are all bales, building a clamp and switching to chopped silage is a hell of a step to take just because you want to try maize.

Why might bale silage be best?

Even if you have the option of silage clamps, you still might consider bales to be a better option. This is because bales can offer something that no clamp has ever been able to do, and that is aerobic stability. Bales can remain sealed against the dreaded oxygen right up to the point that the silage is fed. As soon as a clamp is opened, some of the silage is exposed to the air with all of the associated problems that this brings. Now I spend most of my working time trying to create conditions to combat and control this problem because in most cases it is reasonably controllable.

The key part to that sentence is MOST CASES because it’s not all. This is due to the fact that we are working with biochemical process here, and the effectiveness of our enemy is heavily influenced by the temperature and humidity in the environment. So just like those farmers who would like to use bales in the north, many in the south may also be tempted by the benefits of silage bales. High temperatures can make clamp face losses too much of a risk in some conditions, however narrow and well compacted that face is. Bales can possibly remove this problem.

Selling silage

Selling silage in bales is also so much easier, and better for all parties when it’s neatly wrapped in small packages. Selling clamp silage is always a compromise in my opinion, so if you have a business plan that involves selling silage, then bales might be your ideal silage.

How can I make maize silage bales?

Although you can mow wholecrop and arable silage, you really shouldn’t be mowing maize crops for silage. The maize crop needs to be harvested and chopped with a forager with a specialist header. The chopping bit is important because it’s the chopping that lets with helpful bacteria get access to the crop nutrients and in turn, make a stable fermentation. That is also one of the reasons why bale silage is sometimes “sub optimal” because although the baler will have chopping knives, the baler length of chop (LOC) is nothing like the LOC of a forage harvester.

So the solution is to chop the crop as if it were going to a clamp, but then to put it though a stationary baler-wrapper unit. Although this is another machine, another process, and another cost, you need to remember that it’s saving the clamp costs.

Bale or AG-Bag silage?

So if you are going to all that trouble, why not just stuff the crop into an AG-bag (or silage sausage) and save yourself some plastic? Well it’s an option, but the silage sausage is not really solving any of the problems above. It still leaves the silage exposed to the oxygen when you are feeding it. You can’t sell bags of silage as easily as bales and you still need all the same kit and equipment to feed out of a bag, as you do to feed out of a clamp.

What else can you bale and wrap?

I am assuming that the wrapper is going to be a contractors machine so if it is, then it does need to earn its keep. So what else can it do, well it can certainly bale whole crop silage and this can offer all the same benefits as maize silage, but it can also bale and wrap all sorts of materials and recyclable products so its not a one trick pony.

Downsides of whole crop and maize silage bales

There is no getting away from the elephant in the room, it it’s a plastic elephant. Wrapping silage in bales uses a huge quantity of plastic and that comes with a couple of issues. Firstly there is the cost, and that cost seems to be ever increasing. Secondly there is the handling and recycling of all the plastic and finally there is the environmental impact or image of using large volumes of plastic. These issues are both local and global and I am not going to explore them any further in this article.

Can a wrapper keep up with a chopper?

This is one of the key questions that needs to be looked at because fast wrapping and sealing is vital for this system to produce good silage. Even the highest outputs quoted for the wrapper manufactures is still less than 100t per hour. In a recent DLG test of the Claas Jaguar 960 with “only” 650hp achieved over 200t per hour in the field at a LOC of 4mm. Clearly one wrapper isn’t going to keep up with this. But then not every chopper has this sort of output, an 840 is only putting out two thirds of the power of the 960.

The other really big issue with bale silage is the protection of the product. Wrap is easily damaged by stones, rodents and bird beaks so it needs to be handled with care and protected. But then all of these points are equally true and relevant with grass silage bales. I guess the takeaway message of this is that bales are possible for maize and wholecrop silage and they might be the best solution for your particular situation. If that’s something that appeals to you, then speak to your local contractors because you might not be alone in wanting to put maize silage into bales.

If you want to discuss making maize or wholecrop silage in bales or would like to discuss any other aspects covered in this series, contact me at jeremy@silageconsultant.co.uk

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