By Per Lingvall
Senior researcher at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. He started the university's Division of Forage Conservation in 1971 and has been conducting research into bale silage since 1984.

In recent years traditional farm revenues have come from milk, beef and grain production and from subsidies e.g. from the EU. New rules are being developed that will shift the emphasis as society places higher value on sustainable rotation systems, the conservation of nature and increased use of the landscape for recreation.

Two other influential factors are increasing in importance: animal welfare and food safety. Both influence the way in which farms will operate and their production and use of conserved forage.

A typical example is seen in the increase of subsidised organic beef production based on grazing and forage conservation. The growth in organic farming will increase the emphasis given to home-grown crops and their conservation. We may expect that more crops will be grown and fed on farms than today. This will enable farmers to increase the proportion of forage in the diet. Good quality forage will stimulate consumption and production. The use of a range of home-grown forages will also help to moderate environmental problems associated with nitrogen leakage.

The practicality of big bale silage is already proven. It is now the dominant means of forage conservation in the Nordic countries. Big bale silage also is an effective conservation technique that provides the flexibility required for the previously mentioned developments in agriculture.

A key benefit for the future is that every bale is its own silo, which means a crop can be conserved as soon as there is sufficient crop to fill the bale. You do not need either the volume or the period of fine weather required to fill a silo. This makes it easier for farmers to produce silage of the desired composition and to utilise the biological value of the crops in an optimum manner.

The same conservation method can be used for many crops — pure grasses, legumes, whole-crop cereals, forage mixtures and dried hay or bedding straw.

One of the growing applications is the horse market. The bales for horse silage are often 400-800kg square bales, produced by farmers but sold and transported to the user's stables. They are wrapped with a high number of layers to keep the bale tight and avoid puncturing. Smaller square or round bales are more appropriate where only a few horses are being provided for. Small square bales are more difficult to produce at a high density with current equipment. They also pose greater problems with wrapping and the corners are vulnerable to damage during handling. The best results are achieved by cross wrapping. We can expect further developments in baling and wrapping technology to meet these needs.

In general, there is still a considerable opportunity for greater coordination between the partners in the value chain relating to baled silage. There remain many interesting potential developments to improve profitability and security in bale ensiling.

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