Silage Insights - Bale silage – The right technology is important for high quality and mechanization for efficient feeding

The “Bale Silage Day” recently organised in Germany by Dow together with the Rationalisation Board for Agriculture (RKL) and the Chamber of Agriculture of the Schleswig-Holstein region, shows that German livestock farmers have an increasing interest in bale silage as it provides the opportunity of conserving forage with minimum losses and does not require important capital investments. Today’s good baler technology provides opportunities for greater efficiencies and for the production of high-quality bales. The mechanization of loosening bales at farms of a certain size saves time and labour costs for feeding the animals.

There are some basic requirements that farmers need to consider producing bale silage and choosing the right technology:

• Avoid soil contamination when ensiling forage, to reduce risk of poor fermentation and dry matter losses
• Achieve 30% dry matter content or more
• Use a baler with extra slicing rotor and sharp knives in order to ensure even and short cuts which will guarantee optimal pressing, easy loosening of the bales and high quality of bale silage
• Use a baler equipped with a fix or variable compressor chamber: fix compressor chamber produces bales with a soft core and variable compressor chamber produces bales with consistent compressed density
• Apply sufficient number of film layers to the bales to create oxygen-free conditions and use light coloured film. The longer the bales’ storage period, the more layers of silage wrap will need to be applied on the bale. Studies have shown that at least six to eight layers are required in order to reduce gas permeability (Figure 1) and provide ideal conditions for high-quality silage production.

Fig. 1: Number of film layers and gas permeability (Schmerbauch, 1999)

Since feeding is rather laborious, there might be a need depending on the farm size to mechanize the feeding in order to facilitate the loosening of bales, forage distribution and additionally to reduce the work force needed. Feeding and forage distribution is of critical importance as these two elements constitute 40-45% of the total costs for basic and concentrated forage in milk production. Forage only is therefore the largest cost position as it takes 15-20% of the total labour of a dairy farm.

Bale silage with large energy contents and forage qualities requires mechanisation, depending on cattle size. There are several semi- and fully-automated solutions for loosening the bales:

• Round bale cutter
• Round bale unwinder
• Open bale shredder
• Closed bale shredder
• Round bale shredder and distribution wagon
• Chopping mixer wagon
• Other devices (fork, hayrack, etc.)

The chopping mixer wagon is now commonly used at almost all farms with more than 50 cows. The special forage mixing wagons have the best technical characteristics for loosening round bales and mixing them properly. Studies by the FAT (Forschungsanstalt Tänikon) show the savings in labour per cow and day.

Fig. 2: Straining labour per cow and day of various feeding methods (Source: FAT report no.: 646)

Bale silage conserves forage with minimum losses and is especially suited for later cuts on small and remote fields. Choosing the right technology and machines is important to produce high quality bales and save workforce. The feeding, in particular, is rather expensive and time consuming. Therefore a high level of mechanization is recommended like for example the use of a chopping mixer wagon to loosen bales and distribute the forage effectively.

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