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Conference paper2018Peer reviewedOpen access

Dry matter losses from different silo structures

Spörndly, Rolf

Abstract

Major research resources have been spent to improve the ensiling process. The ultimate objective is to accomplish a secure preservation of the ensiled material with limited changes in nutrients and a high hygienic standard of the end-product. However, the problem of silage heating up after opening and during unloading is evident on man y farms. This problem leads to rapid deterioration of feed quality, large losses and sometimes situations where a considerable amount of silage must be discarded. Heating does not always occur, but takes place in a seemingly haphazard way on different farms and in different years. Presence of air in the silo is a prerequisite f or heating and yeast starts the process in most cases (Wilkinson & Davies, 2013), which always leads to losses of organic matter and the production of carbon dioxide and heat. A set of experiments, funded by the Swedish Farmers ́ Foundation for Agricultural Research, have been carried out in laboratory scale silos to study the effect of air ingress during fermentation ( Spörndly & Persson, 2015a) and during unloading silos (Spörndly & Nylund, 2016) as well as the effect of yeast prevalence on crops at commercial farms (Spörndly & Persson, 2015b). Temperature measurements have also been performed in full-scale bunker silos to monitor ongoing processes during the ensiling and unloading phases (Spörndly & Nylund, 2016). The present study reports dry matter (DM) losses measured by silo balances and chemical analyses from different types of silo structures at commercial farms.

Keywords

dry matter; feed quality; silage

Published in

Rapport / Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, Institutionen för husdjurens utfodring och vård
2018, number: 298, pages: 171-176
Title: Proceedings of the 9th Nordic Feed Science Conference, Uppsala, Sweden
Publisher: Department of Animal Nutrition and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Conference

9th Nordic Feed Science Conference, Uppsala, Sweden