About Lesson
Steps in preparation of silage:
- Harvesting of crop:
- Crop at half-bloom stage is suitable in single cut forage while multi-cut forage can be harvested at 55-60 days of sowing for first cut and 25-30 days for subsequent cutting.
- Necessary precaution should be taken to select a suitable stage of forage for harvesting maximum nutrients.
- Wilting of crop to 30-40% DM:
- Wilting of crop to reduce moisture content upto 60-65% is desirable.
- Chaffing of forage:
- Chaffed forages can be compressed to a greater extent and if exposes more plant surface area for faster microbial growth and lactic acid production.
- After chafing and ensuring that DM is around 35%, silo is filled with fodder.
- Trampling should be done properly either with men or bullock cart or tractor depending on size of pit.
- At the top, the fodder should be filled in 1.5 m higher than the ground level.
- Mixing of legume and non-legume crops:
- Legumes are rich sources of protein and poor sources of carbohydrates whereas non-legumes are poor in protein and rich sources of carbohydrates.
- When both are mixed together, they can be turned into good quality silage.
- Mixing of additives:
- Different types of additives are added in silage to increase their palatability and nutritive value.
- Ex: molasses, salt, inorganic chemical organic acids, urea, lactic acid bacteria.
- Filling of silo:
- Silage are filled in air tight manner to create anaerobic condition.
- It causes production of good silage.
- Removal of silage:
- After a period of 4-6 weeks, silage is ready for feeding to livestock.
- After removal of silage, the open end of the silo should be covered in such manner, that the contact from the air is minimum.