Producing high-quality silage is essential for preserving forage nutrition, reducing waste, and maximising livestock performance. Follow these tips to improve fermentation, reduce spoilage, and retain more feed value in your silage.
Producing top-quality silage requires careful attention to harvest timing, inoculation, compaction, sealing, and storage. Harvesting at the right stage of maturity and achieving target dry matter levels ensures the best fermentation conditions. Using Pioneer® brand inoculants helps drive efficient lactic acid production, reducing spoilage and improving feed quality. Proper compaction with a tractor, spreading silage in thin layers, and spending extra time rolling remove oxygen, preventing heating and dry matter loss. Sealing the stack tightly with a high-quality cover and handling bales with care prevents exposure to air, protecting valuable nutrients. Following these best practices results in highly digestible, stable silage that maximises livestock production and farm profitability. 🚜
1️⃣ Harvest at the Correct Time
✔ Conserve quality pasture and forage crops at the right stage of maturity.
✔ Aim for target dry matters to ensure proper fermentation and nutrient preservation.
2️⃣ Use Pioneer® Brand Inoculant
✔ Backed by a world-class research program for superior performance.
✔ Features patented, proprietary inoculants for enhanced fermentation.
✔ Offers crop-specific inoculants designed to optimize different forage types.
3️⃣ Compact Properly
✔ Proper compaction is essential for removing oxygen and ensuring a well-fermented, stable silage stack. Oxygen trapped in the stack allows spoilage organisms like yeasts and moulds to thrive, leading to heating, dry matter loss, and reduced feed quality.
✔ Increase rolling time, especially in dry silages (higher dry matter). Drier forage is harder to compact and requires more rolling to achieve adequate density
✔ Higher density = better fermentation, less spoilage, and more valuable feed. Compacting thoroughly from the start makes a huge difference in the final quality of your silage.
4️⃣ Seal Tightly
✔ Use a high-quality plastic cover and weigh it down with touching tyres to prevent air infiltration.
✔ Seal the edges to keep out moisture.
5️⃣ Store Correctly
✔ Handle bales with care to prevent puncturing the wrap.
✔ Repair holes immediately to avoid oxygen exposure and spoilage.
By following these steps, you can preserve more nutrients, improve silage stability, and provide high-energy feed for your livestock. Using Pioneer® inoculants and best management practices will help maximize your silage investment and ensure consistent, high-quality feed year-round.
