Quality silage is no fluke

More than 90 silage contractors and their staff recently gathered at the Landpower workshop in Melbourne to refresh their skills in producing quality silage.

The event was hosted by Landpower, one of the largest privately-owned farm machinery distributors in Australasia, in partnership with Lallemand Animal Nutrition.

Landpower represents some of the world’s leading farm machinery brands, including CLAAS, via the CLAAS Harvest Centre network in Australia and New Zealand.

CLAAS Harvest Centre Product Manager, Luke Wheeler, gave a detailed presentation on how to optimise crop flow, silage quality and fuel efficiency when operating a CLAAS JAGUAR forage harvester.

CLAAS JAGUAR is the world’s leading forage harvester, with more than 45,000 units produced over the past 50 years.

It can be fitted with the new SHREDLAGE processor, which intensively processes corn kernels and long-chop maize to improve the digestibility of starch and fibre.

With more than 20 years’ experience working on JAGUAR harvesters as a service technician, product specialist and product manager, Luke’s in-depth knowledge was clearly evident and appreciated.

The Landpower presentations and breakout sessions involved preparation equipment, harvesting and compaction equipment along with the latest technology in telematics and NIR for measuring silage
production. With machinery covering all the silage making steps the focus was especially on producing clean feed with the latest in mowing and raking equipment to reduce the risk of soil contamination of silage. While the CLASS Wheel Loaders focused on the efficient compaction of the silage pile.

Lallemand Technical Services Manager, David Lewis, addressed recent advances in forage inoculant and sealing technology, as well as best management practice.

David stressed the importance of using a scientifically-proven, strain-specific inoculant to match the ensiling conditions.

“High protein crops face greater fermentation challenges, while high starch crops face
greater aerobic stability issues,” he says.

“Do not assume that all inoculants ‘work’ or have the same efficacy.

“Choose a forage inoculant that has a known potency that is clearly stated on the label; one that has specific enzymes to assist bacteria to produce an optimal fermentation and improve digestibility; and one that has been formulated for optimal stability and solubility.”

During the workshop sessions David also stressed the importance of measuring and managing the silage process as this is the most important time when decisions and the procedures at harvest impact on the
silage outcome and quality from harvesting to storage and feedout. These can all have an influence on the animal feeding outcome. Unfortunately you cant go back and change or add something later after harvest.

Given silage contractors are major nutritional suppliers to their customers forage need its important to understand the decisions and outside influences that can impact silage quality.

“Measure and manage the silage process because if you don’t measure it, you can’t manage or improve it,” he says.

It’s important to learn and use the new technology that comes in new machinery like the Auto LOC, Telematics and NIR.

These functions can supply instant information for better and faster decisions along with reducing time and potential stress, especially when the days are often very long during a busy silage season.

The event was also supported by three other members of Lallemand’s southern team, Phil Lines, Kurt Stein and Scott Atkinson.