Pit Silage - Wet or Dry?

max12

I always thougth it best to cut your silage on a good sunny day when the sugar levels are highest in the grass and then try to get into the pit as dry as possible after that.

however, my neighbour reckons it needs a bit of rain for moisture as he reckons it perserves better in the pit.

what are the views.

second query on number of sheets to put on pit.

I always just go with 2 good sheets but I know if some that put up to 6 covers on.

is there any advantage of putting on extra covers. surely 2 good covers will seal just the same as 5 or 6???????????

pajero12

Cant say anything about the moisture as I mow for the contractor and I'm only ever about 2 hrs ahead of the Harvester so the grass does be slightly damp but not too bad!

As for the covers, 6 is complete overkill. We do all bales but the uncle has a clamp. He uses 3 covers, buys a new one every year and uses the other 2 from the 2 previous years but by the 3rd year the oldest cover is well wrecked so its only really protecting the second one from the tyres

red menace

The man that backs up the silage for our contractor always prefers it a bit damp to ultra dry. Says it rolls better ans seals better.
When the stuff is too dry it seems to be springy and doesn't compact as well.

Muckit

max12 wrote: »

my neighbour reckons it needs a bit of rain for moisture as he reckons it perserves better in the pit.

A bit of dampness is no harm at all to it IMO. Made our silage today. Was drizzly towards the evening. Lad on pit reckons it makes his job a bit easier. If it's too dry it doesn't bind together. Picked 2 hours after it was cut.

I think cutting date and sugar levels are more important for preserving pit silage than worrying about a little bit of rain.

Dunedin

Muckit wrote: »

A bit of dampness is no harm at all to it IMO. Made our silage today. Was drizzly towards the evening. Lad on pit reckons it makes his job a bit easier. If it's too dry it doesn't bind together. Picked 2 hours after it was cut.

I think cutting date and sugar levels are more important for preserving pit silage than worrying about a little bit of rain.

always best to cut silage on a good sunny day as sugar levels are highest. as muckit says, cutting it early is important and early grass is usually 'soft' so there is plenty of moisture in it anyway. a little rain is no harm but still much better to get it cut dry.

funny man

dry silage will preserve better due to higher sugar levels, but too dry leaves pit face management difficult when feeding out. as dry matter percent increases a animal will consume less and save energy thus give better feed conversion to milk or beef.