Dear dairy producers, Biogas plant owners
and costum farmers.
All of you produce silage with one aim – either to achieve the best quality in animal feed as a basis for successful and competitive dairy production, or to ensure a high output for your biogas digester. The use of inappropriate silage compaction equipment does not guarantee the elimination of oxygen from the silage mass. Negative effects on temperature, fermentation, nutritive value, and silage stability are most likely - ketoses, depression of reticulo-ruminal motor functions, or uptake of toxic compounds - the long term consequences that negatively affect animal health.
Principles of silage making:
Silage that has been properly fermented without oxygen will have a much lower pH (more acidic) than the original forage. This fermentation characteristic is maximised when sugars are primarily fermented into lactic acid. The oxidation of plant sugars by respiratory processes negatively affects fermentation characteristics in the silo and will result in butyric or alcoholic fermentation, or the production of compounds that are toxic to livestock.
The golden rule for silage production is therefore: quick and thorough packing has to be followed by immediate and total elimination of oxygen.
The basis for the production of high-quality silage is the checking and compliance of various criteria of forage fermentation, such as: high moisture content (30-40%), crude fibre content ( 240-260 g/kg DM), sugar content (>100g/kg DM), chop length, buffering capacity, nitrate content, crude ash content (<120g/kg DM).
Functioning of the silage roll:
Normally rear and front ballast is attached to tractors in order to increase the compaction efficiency. At the same time they use twin- or even triplet wheels to ensure operational safety, although this negatively affects the compaction pres-sure. On the one hand, voluminous tires are supposed to keep the soil pressure of tractors as low as possible when working on the field. On the other hand, they are supposed to compress forage when working in the pit silo. This is an obvious contradiction. Tractor tires are not suited at all for silage compaction.
That is why we use the silage roll. The high weight of each individual roll in combination with their small contact area guarantees a high pressure and thus intensive compaction.
Advantages using the silage roll:
• evenly compressed silage all over the whole working width (2.10 – 3.50m) after only one rolling
• less diesel consumption due to less rolling
• production of high quality silage at high stockpiling
• higher stockpiling at higher compaction (>10% per m³)
• dense compaction even under poor conditions (high DM content, moist forage)
• no greasy lubricants on top of the heap
• other vehicles, such as front loaders, skid loaders, or telehandlers do not sink in on compressed silage heaps
• high operational safety for vehicles rolling the heap
• better compaction of sides of heaps outside of pit silos
• less spots with poor fermentation on the sides of silage piles
• minor loss during ensiling and emptying
• no damage of silo structure like when using vibratory asphalt or soil compactors
• the silage roll is robust, durable and not subject to wear and tear
• minimal inspection work (greasing of only 2 floating bearings)
A must have for professional silage making.