In fact, the better the pasture and crop the more challenging it is to get the ensiling process perfect.
Product distributor 4Sight has expanded into silage inoculants and is on a mission to prove its new type of silage additives is better than the rest.
According to 4Sight, the higher quality the feed the more protein silage has, but less sugars and starches.
This creates a problem when it comes to the fermentation process, which is fed by the sugar and starch content.
This means the better the silage, the harder to ensile it.
“When we need a little sugar, we have lots, and when we need lots, we have far too little,” 4Sight said.
“The extra sugar required (for high quality silage) must come from non-fibre carbohydrates, but this takes time, resulting in the breakdown of the previous real protein.”
The solution to this problem has always been silage additives, either as lactic acid or lactic acid producing bacteria.
“Apart from incremental advances, nothing much as changed since then — at least till now,” the Shepparton-based business said.
“enSILE-Bio RTU is not quite a revolution in terms of product, but it is in terms of thinking and application.”
Developed to accelerate the ensiling process, the new inoculant reduces heat production, retains more energy and degrades less protein by stimulating the natural sugar to alcohol to lactic acid reaction chain.
Developed by Townsville-based VRM BioLogik, enSILE-Bio RTU requires no premixing or refrigeration and is entirely Australian-made and owned.
“enSILE-Bio is a ready-to-use catalyst that make the conditions much more favourable for the rampant growth of the endogenous (not applied) lactic acid bacteria — the ones already contaminating the silage in vast numbers,” 4Sight said.
“This means the process of ensilation starts much sooner, and importantly, moves into the non-fibre carbohydrates breakdown quickly and aggressively, and thus, the ensilation is finished faster preserving more dry matter (less heat generated) and more true protein.”
4Sight is a regenerative agriculture-focused Victorian business which distributes and develops products for sustainable farming practices.
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