Silage quality can vary a lot from farm to farm, or even paddock to paddock. Here are some tips for nailing your silage this year.
As paddocks across northern Victoria start to fill out with the spring flush, attention is turning to silage.
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Here are four steps to getting your silage right, direct from Agriculture Victoria’s experts.
Only lock up surplus pasture
The first rule of silage-making sounds simple, but it trips up plenty of operations: don't lock up pasture your stock still need.
On most farms, pasture growth will comfortably outpace animal requirements by early-to-mid September, creating a genuine surplus that can be set aside for silage.
The key is not letting pasture get away and become overly mature before cutting.
Timing your nitrogen application right
Nitrogen is a powerful tool for lifting silage yield, but it comes with a ticking clock attached.
Applying nitrogen at rates up to 50 kg N/ha can deliver strong returns of around 12kg of dry matter for every kilogram of nitrogen applied, measured six weeks after application.
Once cutting is delayed beyond that six-week window, silage quality declines far more rapidly than unfertilised pasture, producing large volumes of low-quality silage.
This feed is unsuitable for cows in the early stages of lactation, when energy demands are highest.
Use tedders to speed up wilting
Once pasture is cut, the clock starts again, but this time on the wilting process.
The wilting period will depend on the type of silage being made and the weather on the day.
As a general guide, farmers working in reasonable drying conditions should aim to have material ready for pit silage within 48 hours, and bale silage within 72 hours.
Faster wilting reduces the risk of prolonged field exposure, whick leads to nutrient loss, weather damage and contamination.
Once the pasture is cut and wilted, it’s essential to ensile it quickly, locking in all the good stuff and blocking out the bad.
Ensile quickly and seal well
The final step is what happens once the cut, wilted material is ready to be stored.
Getting material ensiled quickly, packed tightly, and sealed promptly is essential.
Air is the enemy here: any delay or gap in sealing gives unwanted fermentation and mould the opportunity to take hold.
Dry matter content is critical to getting this step right.
For pit silage, the ideal target is around 30 per cent dry matter.
Any lower and effluent run-off can become a problem, while going much higher can make achieving adequate compaction difficult.
Bale silage operates in a different range, with an ideal dry matter of 45 to 50 per cent.
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