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Silage and forage
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As a dairy farmer consider the following questions: How high is your herd performance? How high is the milk yield from basic fodder? And how high are your production costs per liter of milk (full cost calculation)? Quite possibly you will come to the conclusion that you could well increase your herd performance through your own basic fodder. High fodder efficiency corresponds with high milk yields. You should aim to produce over 60% of your milk production from...
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1. Potential Did you know how high the energy density of your grass patches is or which kinds of grasses and weeds grow there? Is grass mixture really decisive for the production of high quality grass silage? If need be consult the expert opinion of grass specialists and have them assess the state of your cultivated patches. Also, routinely conduct plant appraisals. Additionally, the examination of the Nmin content can also be useful for...
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I would like to know how to feed moldy forage without affecting the health of poultry or farm livestock. Any opinion would be really appreciated! Thanks, ...
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A new concept in enzyme technology has allowed farmers to increase the amount of energy and protein they get from home grown forages. The new enzymes acting together, separate the energy containing cellulose from the lignin to make the cellulose more available to bacteria for fermentation. For some years it has been apparent that enzymes could play an important part in the improvement of forages but only now with the event...
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The aim was to determine if bacterial inoculants could eliminate E. coli O157:H7 (ECOL) in contaminated corn silages and if inoculants transferred antibacterial activity to silages. Chopped corn forage was ensiled in triplicate after treatment with:1) distilled water (control); 2) 5 x 105 cfu/g of ECOL (EC); 3) EC and 1 x 106 cfu/g of Pediococcus pentosaceus (NCIMB 12455) and Propionibacterium freudenreichii (R2453) (EC+BII); 4) EC and 1 x 106 cfu/g of...
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Pros and Cons of Applying Manure on Perennial Forage Advantages Manure can be a valuable source of nutrients for forage crops. It is a "complete" fertilizer, containing varying amounts of all the major plant nutrients - nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K) and sulphur (S) - as well as essential micronutrients such as calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn). Manure applications may also improve soil...
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Clostridia, or butyric bacteria, contamination in silage always has financial consequences for the farmer, being the loss of dry matter or direct financial penalties on milk prices which are applied in certain cheese-making regions. A recently published study (Borreani et al., Journal of Applied Microbiol., 2009) shows that, even when the analysis of fresh silage shows low clostridia count, the silage can become heavily contaminated at feedout, due to aerobic instability, a phenomenon that...
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Alfalfa winterkill this spring was worse than anticipated across the province, forcing many to reseed significant acreage. Where a cereal nurse crop is used to establish a new alfalfa seeding, the nurse crop will provide some early season weed control and additional forage when harvested as silage. However, the nurse crop has the potential to provide severe competition to the underseeded alfalfa crop resulting in reduced establishment. A nurse crop can also...
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Silage is the product of the fermentation of different crops caused mainly by lactic acid bacteria (LAB) based on the acidification of the material under anaerobic conditions. Biological silage additives are used in two main directions: a) to enhance the fermentation (homofermentative LAB producing mainly lactic acid) = stimulants; and b) to lengthen the aerobic stability of the silage in the feed out phase (under exposure to air, heterofermentative bacteria producing acetic or propionic...
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Corn silage is great cattle feed. When harvested and stored correctly it has a lot of digestible fiber, plenty of starch from the grain to provide lots of energy, and is well-liked by cattle. However, like most feeds from the corn plant, it comes up short on Calcium and Protein. While producers can provide these needed nutrients as supplements when the silage is fed, another option is to mix these into the silage as it goes into storage. This provides the producer with a "ready-to-feed"...
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It is important to examine your needs and goals when selecting pasture species. Pasture mixes can be very diverse or very simple. In most cases, there are positive results with a mixture that contains 4-6 species. If you are seeding an area that has two very distinct soil conditions consider using a different seed mix for each area rather than mixing a large number of species to cover the whole area.
Species need to be matched in maturity and adaptability to soil conditions. Also...
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New official Swiss trials confirm Lalsil Dry efficacy
Lallemand Animal Nutrition announced that Lalsil ® Dry, its silage additive specifically developed for high dry matter grass and alfalfa silages, is now authorized in Switzerland. Its efficacy to improve both acidification process and stability after opening of high dry matter grass silages has been validated by official trials conducted in a Research...
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Silage inoculants are bacteria that are used to manipulate and enhance fermentation. Until recently, most inoculants have been homofermentative strains of lactic acid producing bacteria (LAB). The primary benefits of LAB inoculants are a more efficient fermentation, resulting in improved dry matter recovery and improved animal performance. The introduction of corn silage inoculants containing heterofermentative strains of Lactobacillus buchneri is quite different because they...
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The preservation of feed for periods of underproduction is a universal problem. All farmers worldwide face the need of guaranteeing the feed for their animals over the year, and not only quantitatively but also qualitatively. A first differentiation in the techniques used for preserving feed is done by the presence or lack of oxygen. Grains and hay are mainly preserved aerobically with the addition of different kinds of preservatives. A classic example for an anaerobic preservation...
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Livestock producers are always aware of the need to put up enough forage. This can be very challenging in extremely dry years. Dry weather creates even more immediate problems in pasture situations during the "summer slump". In dry years, strategies such as rotational grazing and the use of corn silage, can help to ensure adequate feed inventories.
Forage Yield & Quality
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The importance of harvest moisture and maturity to corn silage quality and animal performance is often underestimated. Not only is it important to minimize fermentation dry matter and spoilage losses, it is difficult to compensate for poor forage quality in ration balancing and animal performance. Don't get caught harvesting corn silage past optimum moisture and maturity. In areas that are extremely dry, optimum moisture may occur before optimum maturity. Focus on harvesting at the...
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These days the price of grain is constantly increasing due to poor harvests in key producing countries, supply constraints on the rice economy and a fast-growing demand for bio-fuel (UN News Centre, 2006). A price decrease is not expected in the coming years. This is why producers have to extract the highest animal performance from locally produced voluminous feedstuffs such as pastures, silages and industrial by-products. The preservation of the feed value is an important topic...
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Preserving and storing an adequate and nutritionally suitable winter feed supply is an essential part of livestock production in western Canada. With feed costs making up a major portion of total livestock industry expenses it is essential that the most efficient and effective method be used. Silage offers the opportunity of consistently putting up high quality feed with a minimum of harvesting losses despite weather. Timely harvesting will minimize losses resulting in silage of a high...
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The silage fermentation is predominantly a lactic one brought about through the activities of lactic acid bacteria found naturally on the crop ensiled. These bacteria ferment sugars into varying amounts of lactic acid, acetic acid, ethanol, the sugar alcohol mannitol, and carbon dioxide. Ideally there should be a dominance of lactic acid as it is by far the strongest acid produced in silage (has the lowest pKa value at 3.08), and is extremely palatable to the ruminant consumer. Acetic acid...
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The year 2008 will long be remembered as the year when it was almost impossible to make dry hay without getting some rain on it. With almost daily rains and lack of sunshine, suitable hay making weather "windows" were either extremely narrow or non-existent. Rain-damaged hay is typically lower in soluble sugars and higher in fibre, discoloured, mouldy, dusty and less palatable to livestock. Hay baled "tough" also presents the risk of heating in storage. "Horse quality" hay made without...
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