Are maize or corn knives worth the cost?
Maize knives are designed to make the most of all the horsepower in chopping these really tough silage crops like maize or corn - or so the manufactures would like you to believe - but are they really worth the extra cost to buy and change?
How to bale maize silage
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?
Precast or cast in-situ concrete silage clamp walls?
The walls of a silage clamp - if you’re having walls - will probably be made of concrete…. I’m often asked if precast is better than cast on site or cast in-situ walls.
What is the best way to fill a silage clamp?
The Irish love to build a steep clamp with a ramp that resembles the north face of the Igor, whilst the Germans build a clamp that has more in common the the flat lands of the neighbouring Netherlands…. Steep or shallow, high or low, what is the best way to fill a silage clamp?
Push-off buckrake or silage fork flick?
When it comes to levelling silage on the clamp are you a fork flicker or a push over?…. But here is the thing - in my opinion there is no such thing as the perfect flick!
Are remote silage clamps a good idea?
faced with land spread over half a dozen counties, where the hell do you build the silage clamps to hold all this stuff?
Why is Silage Effluent so pollutive?
there are a whole load of rules and regulations concerning how you deal with the stinky stuff. So exactly what is it about silage effluent that makes all those strict rules so necessary?
Why wet silage is bad silage
Our silage results are good apart from the low dry matter and low sugars, but why are the sugars so low? ….because there are three silage values that are tightly linked together, low dry matter, pH and available sugars.
Automated silage clamp sheeting - fantasy or future?
a machine that sheets the whole silage clamp, weighs the covers down and can also do the whole thing in reverse to open up for feeding
The temperature of silage and how hot is too hot?
it’s common knowledge that hot silage is not great silage, but silage does heat up during fermentation so when does this heat become a problem?
Which silage inoculant should you choose?
If you have decided that silage inoculants can help you make better use of the forage you grow, then the obvious question is which one should you use
Is bagged silage better silage?
maybe silage in bags (or should that be silage sausages) offers the best of both worlds, the flexibility of bales without the building cost of clamps?
Is a silage shear grab worth the money?
the shear grab is an extremely valuable piece of kit that might just be the most important thing outside the milking parlour
Automated silage feeding robots - science fiction or the future?
If you’re not tempted to self feed cows, what other options are there to feed housed diary cows that don’t include a feeder wagon, tractor and loader that can still free up some time?
Steering silage trailers into the future
Steering the axles of a silage trailer can make the whole rig much more nimble and manoeuvrable in a tight spot… But manoeuvrability is only part of the story, steering trailer axles can also drastically reduce tyre wear - by up to 60% - and damage to grass sward in the field too.
How to avoid mud on the road in a wet silage harvest
Mud on tyres inevitably leads to mud on road and as forage harvester output increases the amount of soil carting tractors and silage trailers can deposit on the highway increases too. Bigger foot prints spread mud on more tarmac and loads come thick and fast as does the brown stuff.
Silage chop length for AD plants
chop length influences the stability of the silage once its open to the elements, or how chop length effects aerobic stability. This is important to all producers of silage but the chop length of silage for an aerobic digester is super important for more than the usual reasons.
How to identify the best land to produce silage
Back in the day, the herd at grass was a constant barometer of the sward quality and quantity….. But for those housing cows 365 or feeding bacteria in an AD tank, how do you know which ground is pulling its weight and which fields need some TLC?
What is theoretical chop length of silage?
what is the difference between a forage harvesters theoretical and actual length of chop and why isn’t the silage tipped in the clamp the same as the pretty pictures in the brochure?
How many bacteria do you need to make good silage?
….. when you are faced with a “challenging crop” that might be a bit tricky to ensile. It’s tempting to up the dose rate on these crops, to “give it a bit of helping hand” with an extra dose of inoculant. But more isn’t always better because the number of bacteria is actually misleading.