In the United Kingdom, the demand for straw on livestock farms cannot usually be met by on-farm production or local supply; few cereals are grown in Wales, Dumfries and Galloway or County Cork, for example. Wrapped straw would ease the demand on protected storage space and help to guarantee the supply of good quality bedding.
Furthermore, straw is one common ingredient of Total Mixed Rations (TMR) for cattle, a minor but essential part of the diet. It is used to provide some long fibre but more importantly to provide 'scratch factor'; stimulation of the lining of the rumen which in turn promotes salivation, a vital element in allowing the animal to "chew the cud". It is plausible to think that higher dry matter silage can replace straw in the diet and provide all that straw is providing but with better nutritive value - certainly it is a development area that deserves further investigation.
Whole-crop cereals continue to be grown and the range appears to be broadening. Most commonly this is wheat but barley and triticale are also grown for this purpose.
In 2008, there is substantial evidence of "crimping" cereal crops, a technique whereby the ears of a crop are harvested "green" and then made into silage. This technique was not encountered at all in 2002 when the first Market Report on Bale Silage was published..
The increase in whole-crop cereal silage is driven by the need to have high protein feed available to counter the "energy gap" in dairy cows and for feeding to high-yielding animals.
Market research conducted by Dow in 2008 shows instances of farmers allowing additional wilt on second cut silage to produce something between silage and haylage in terms of dry matter content. This is made with a specific nutritional task in mind: feeding to young stock, especially dairy followers and to dry cows whose energy needs are lower than when they are lactating.
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| Alternative Crops for Ensiling |
Many crops other than grass can be used for ensiling. The baling process offers farmers an ideal method of testing the use of these crops without committing the substantial resources required to fill a silage clamp, let alone to build a new one.
For more information, see the Forage Options section.
| Conserving Maize without a Clamp |
Clamps have significant capital costs associated with them, and crops stored in them cannot be readily moved, bought or sold.
For this reason, developing a cost-effective way in which maize could be ‘packaged’ into more easily handled units would provide benefits to small farms in particular.
A spokesperson from Norwegian machinery manufacturer Orkel, which has introduced a baler/wrapper for maize, says their machine compresses and wraps organic short materials in round bales.
Short materials have always been a problem because they can’t be ‘rolled’ in the way other forages normally are. Packing short forages into a bale means maize (always chopped), short length grass and short length forages can now be conserved in a more flexible manner. Cost of this novel machinery will remain the only barrier.
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