Ensiling forages is a great way to have a forage ration year round. Not only that, you can have a consistent quality for one silo or pit and that becomes really easy to balance the complimenting ration to a consistent forage. Corn silage is one of the most prevalent silage used.
But it is very important to check the quality of silage before feeding that to your cows. These are the parameters you need to evaluate silage for:
DRY MATTER- This is a must. A good quality corn silage shall be between 30-40 % dry matter, depending upon how wet or dry the crop was harvested. Anything outside that range may not be fit or feeding, may not have fermented right in the silo. Apart from that it is recommended to test the silage for dry matter every 7-10 days. The diet or concentrate might have to be changed depending upon that. The standard method is oven drying but it can be checked on farm in a microwave and that is fairly valid.
PHYSICAL FORM- That includes the chop length and kernel processing. PENN STATE SHAKER BOX is the best tool for it. You can use standard size sieve boxes if it is not available in your country. This will give you a fair idea of physically effective fiber in diet which is very important for cattle.
Apart from that bucket test to see Kernel processing is a very good tool to determine Kernel processing which may impact available starch to a large extent. If you cows are excreting whole kernels in Dung that is energy down the drain.
FERMENTATION ANALYSIS- Quality of fermentation can be assessed by the pH first of all. A pH in range of 4 is good. Anything above 4.5 is a not well fermented silage and your herd may have performance and health issues. If you can get the organic acids analysis done, Lactic Acid- 5-10%, Butyric Acid should be not more than 0.5%, otherwise there is Clostridial fermentation and feeding such silage is not recommended. You may have serious fresh cow issues. Lactic acid should be more than 70 percent of all acids, and the lactic-to-acetic ratio should be more than 3. If there is more than 3% ethanol, you might have aerobic stability issues on storage.
Apart from that you can get NDF, ADF and lignin tested for your nutritionist to have an idea of the digestibility.
For details on microwave testing for DM, Penn state shaker box and Bucket method testing, You can contact me.
But it is very important to check the quality of silage before feeding that to your cows. These are the parameters you need to evaluate silage for:
DRY MATTER- This is a must. A good quality corn silage shall be between 30-40 % dry matter, depending upon how wet or dry the crop was harvested. Anything outside that range may not be fit or feeding, may not have fermented right in the silo. Apart from that it is recommended to test the silage for dry matter every 7-10 days. The diet or concentrate might have to be changed depending upon that. The standard method is oven drying but it can be checked on farm in a microwave and that is fairly valid.
PHYSICAL FORM- That includes the chop length and kernel processing. PENN STATE SHAKER BOX is the best tool for it. You can use standard size sieve boxes if it is not available in your country. This will give you a fair idea of physically effective fiber in diet which is very important for cattle.
Apart from that bucket test to see Kernel processing is a very good tool to determine Kernel processing which may impact available starch to a large extent. If you cows are excreting whole kernels in Dung that is energy down the drain.
FERMENTATION ANALYSIS- Quality of fermentation can be assessed by the pH first of all. A pH in range of 4 is good. Anything above 4.5 is a not well fermented silage and your herd may have performance and health issues. If you can get the organic acids analysis done, Lactic Acid- 5-10%, Butyric Acid should be not more than 0.5%, otherwise there is Clostridial fermentation and feeding such silage is not recommended. You may have serious fresh cow issues. Lactic acid should be more than 70 percent of all acids, and the lactic-to-acetic ratio should be more than 3. If there is more than 3% ethanol, you might have aerobic stability issues on storage.
Apart from that you can get NDF, ADF and lignin tested for your nutritionist to have an idea of the digestibility.
For details on microwave testing for DM, Penn state shaker box and Bucket method testing, You can contact me.
No comments:
Post a Comment