Silage

Conservation of fodder

 Preservation of Excess available green fodder

 When green fodders are in plenty,
 conserved as either silage or hay to meet the demand of good quality
fodder during lean season.
 Weed seeds die off in the silo.
Why to Conserve fodder

 To preserve feed when it is available in excess.

 To maintain optimum nutritional value of fodder.
 To shift available feed from the present to the future.
 To move feed from one location to another location.
 To assist pasture management.
Methods of Conservation

 Hay and silage are the main methods of conserving forage

 Hay is preserved by drying.
 Silage involves natural fermentation, which produces lactic
and other acids, which 'pickle' or preserve the forage.
What is silage

 Silage is the green material produced by controlled fermentation of

the green fodder crop retaining the high moisture content.
 Contain 20-40% DM and 14-16% CP
Advantages of silage making

 Silage can be prepared from green fodder when the weather does not
permit for hay making.
 Silage can be prepared from plants having thick stems and are
generally not very suitable for hay making like sorghum, maize
 Highly Nutritious
 Provide green during lean period
 Weeds can also be utilized along with main fodder crops for silage
making. Silage making kills majority of weed seeds.
 It is highly palatable.

 The organic acids produced in the silage are similar to those normally
produced in the digestive tract of the ruminants and therefore are
used in the same manner.
Principle of Silage making

 Anaerobic condition is first and foremost requirement for silage

making, as it allows lactic acid bacteria to grow, which converts
sugars into lactic acid, a strong organic acid.

 As pH declines, the degrading actions of plant enzymes and

undesirable bacteria are inhibited and at pH 3-4, most degrading
enzymes are inhibited and the growth of lactic acid bacteria is also
inhibited.
 Sugars + Oxygen Carbon dioxide + Water +
Heat
this reaction is prevented and nutrient loss is
reduced.
 And in simple words the principle of silage is the same as that in
making pickles.
Selection of crops for silage making

It is easier to ensile forages that have:

 High level of fermentable sugar.
 Low level of protein.
 Low buffering capacity.
 Should have about 35 per cent dry matter at the time of ensiling.
Selection of crops cont....

 Pasture grasses: Elephantgrass (Napiergrass), Guinea grass,

Sudangrass, etc.
 Straws: rice straw, wheat straw, soybean chaff, peanut hulls, etc.
 Corn, Sorghum.
 Farm by-products.
Crops Suitable for Silage Making

1. Kind of crop
 (a) Crops rich in soluble sugars/carbohydrates are most suitable for
ensiling, e.g. maize, sorghum, bajra.
 (b) Cultivated and natural grasses can be ensiled with addition of
molasses at 3 to 3.5%.
 (c) Mixture of grasses/cereal fodders and legumes such as berseem,
lucerne, etc. in a ratio of 3:1.
2. Stage of harvesting:
 Crop should be harvested between flowering and milk stage.
 In general, crops with thick stems are conserved in the form of silage
while thin stemmed crops are conserved as hay.
Silo

 A silo is an air tight structure

 Pit silos are more common in India.
 The pits are dug 2.4 to 3.0 m deep, with variable sizes.
 One cubic metre of space is required for 400 kg fodder.
Site for construction of silo

 The place where we intended to construct silo should be elevated

from other places.
 The place must be free from water logging.
 Walls of silo pit must be leak proof.
 Silo should be sufficiently deep. It should not be shallow.
 It should be at least six feet away from animal farm shed.
 The size of the silo should be calculated on the basis of the number of
animals to be fed, the length of feeding period.
Kind of Silos
1) Stack silo
 Simplest type of silo.
 A plastic sheet of 0.1 mm thickness is spread over the ground, and
similarly chopped silage materials on the sheet are entirely covered
with a plastic sheet.
 Proper pressure and complete sealing are required.
2) Bunker silo
 A bunker silo is generally built on the ground
 a semi underground type, which is half below from the ground
level.
 slope 3-5%
 Side walls made of wood and concrete are needed, and the interior is
preferably sealed by plastic sheets.
 Proper pressure has to be applied, and complete sealing is required.
 Supports are needed so that the side walls do not fall outside.
3) Pit/Trench silo
 A trench silo can be built by simply digging the ground, but it is better
to place plastic sheets inside to prevent loss.
 A trench silo whose interior is coated with concrete can be used for a
long time.
4) Plastic bag silo
 In this type plastic bags with thickness of 0.1 mm are taken
 fill bags with chopped raw materials
 compressed as much as possible to remove the internal air and then
sealed completely.
5) Fenced silo (framed silo)
 The frame is made of bamboo, wooden, iron materials, etc., the
shape of cross section may be circular or rectangular.
 Inside is sealed with plastic sheets.
6) Tower silo
 In this type storage silos are cylindrical structures,
typically 10 to 90 ft. (3 to 27 m) in diameter and 30
to 275 ft. (10 to 90 m) in height.
 Tower silos containing silage are usually unloaded
from the top of the pile.
Silo size

 The silo size is determined by a herd size, the amount of daily feed,
the number of feeding days and packed density of the raw materials.
Making of Silage

✓ Harvesting of fodder.
 Flowering to Milk stage
 Corn: Yellow ripening stage.
 Sorghum: Dough stage.
✓ Moisture Testing 65-70% moisture level in green fodder is ideal for
silage making (if moisture level is high Wilting is required).
 High moisture content leads to poor fermentation.

✓ Chopping of forage to short length (1-3 cm).

 so that the packing density is kept higher, lactic acid fermentation
takes place in good condition.
✓ Spreading chopped fodder to make a bed of 2 feet height in Silo-
Pit.

✓ Compact forage as tightly as possible with help of tractor or hand

roller or any heavy object.

✓ Sprinkle Molasses solution over it at 2-3% of the material weight.

If the moisture content of the raw material is high, molasses addition
may have no effect.
 Addition of bran and other silage additives.

 When the moisture content of the raw materials is 80% or

higher, brans are evenly sprayed at about 10% of material
weight.

 Repeat steps these steps at least 6 to 10 times till the Silo- Pit is
completely filled up.
✓ Seal the pit airtight with plastic cover.

✓Plastic covers should be pressed with heavy objects like bricks or

tire.

✓ Maintain sealing for 45 days.

✓ Once silo-pit will be open, it should be finished within 45-60

days to avoid fungal contamination.
Silage additives

Silage additives should

 [Link] DM (nutrient) recovery,
 [Link] animal performance
 [Link] heating and molding during storage and feed out.

 Direct acidifiers
Inorganic/organic acids --decreases pH
E.g. Sulphuric and formic acids.
Fermentation inhibitors
 Immediately decreases pH•
 Sterilents to inhibit micro flora.g. formaldehyde, sorbic acid salts
Fermentation stimulants•
 provide substrates for fermentation e.g. molasses enzymes -speed-up
fermentation e.g.. cellulase
Inoculants
 -microbial cultures
 E.g. homofermentative lactobacille.
 Others Specific antibiotics/to nutritive value (NaCl, starch, CaCo3 etc)
Fermentation of Silage

Types of fermentation in Silage formation

Homolactic fermentation (homofermentative pathway)
 Very desirable, common in high sugar grasses,
 sugars fermented to lactic acid, low pH nutrient loss
 mediated by Lactobacillus plantarum, L acidilacti etc.
Heterolactic fermentations (heterofermentative pathway)
 Less desirable, occurs when limited sugars are available,
 Mediated by Lactobacillus brevis, L. buchneri.
 Sugars mainly fermented to acetic acid, & alcohols.
 Less efficient than Homolactic fermentation.
Secondary fermentation
 Very undesirable. Degradation of lactate by clostridial
bacteria to Ac & Bu Facilitated by high moisture contents &
high pH
Chemical changes during
fermentation
 Sugars are fermented into volatile fatty acids (VFA) like lactic,
acetic, propionic & butyric)acids by anaerobic microorganisms.
 The formation of the acids reduces the pH (target = 4)
 Protein is degraded into ammonia and NPN (target =<100g
ammonia/kg total Nitrogen)
Judging the quality of silage

 The quality of silage can be judged by its color, smell, taste and
touch.
 Color: In general, pale yellow indicates good quality. If the color is
from dark brown to dark green, the silage underwent bad
fermentation and is of bad quality.
 Smell: Acidic or a sweet-sour pleasant smell indicates good
quality. On the other hand, if there is a manure smell or putrid
smell and it is so repugnant that one cannot put the silage near
one's nose, the quality is poor.

 Taste: If the silage tastes sour and there is no problem in putting

it in one's mouth, the quality is good. On the other hand, if the
silage tastes bitter and one cannot put it in one's mouth, the
quality is poor.
 Touch:
 When squeezing the silage tightly in a hand and then opening
the hand, if the silage breaks slowly into two, that silage is of good
quality.
 If the silage breaks into small pieces separately, the silage is deficient
in moisture content.
 If water is dripping, the moisture content of the silage is too high.
Silage Quality

Shephered et al. (1948) have classified the silage into the following
categories.
 1. Very good silage: Silage having acidic taste and odour, being free
from butyric acid, moulds, sliminess, showing a pH range of 3.5-
4.2, and with ammoniacal nitrogen less than 10% of the total nitrogen.
Lactic acid content is 1-2%.
 2. Good silage: Silage possessing acidic taste and odour, traces of butyric
acid (less than 0.2%), pH 4.2-4.5 and ammoniacal nitrogen 10- 15% of
the total nitrogen.
 3. Fair silage: Ensiled material with some butyric acid, a slight
proteolysis, some moulds, pH 4.8 and above and ammoniacal nitrogen
20% of the total nitrogen.
 Flieg Index is used to indicate quality of Silage.
Thanks