Question
Can the Biotal products be used on baleage and if so, at what moisture level to work properly?
Answer
All Biotal inoculants can be used in baleage; the inoculant will be helpful to ensure a good fermentation in each bale, leading to consistency from bale to bale and subsequently better quality.
The ideal range of moisture for making baleage is 45-55%. If the material is a little wetter (up to 65% moisture), the fermentation is stimulated and there might be some surface condensation because of it; thus, a homolactic will be important to ensure fast and efficient preservation of the material. On the other hand, if it is a little drier (35-45% moisture), the fermentation will be more restricted and it is advisable to use more layers of wrap or inoculate with Lactobacillus buchneri 40788, which specifically protects against aerobic spoilage.
Question:
"Why is Balage higher in pH and sugar values versus haylage?"
Answer:
Thanks for the question. Usually baleage is at a higher DM than haylage in a bunker or pile. The higher the DM of a material, the more restricted the fermentation (i.e. the less acids produced). Less acids produced means higher pH and also less sugars used to generate acids, so higher pH and higher sugars.
If you are talking unchopped baleage vs. chopped haylage, then there is the added factor of there being less cut surface to "leak" sugars out for the microbes to ferment in the aqueous phase. This will also mean less acids are produced, higher pH as a result, and more sugars retained actually within the plant material.
Question:
"How long do you suggest leaving a stand of alfalfa in for? Do older stands affect feed quality? Is it safe to say that a good acre of alfalfa with 3 cuts should feed the cow and her supporting heifers for a year, in other words 200 cow dairy should have 200 acres of alfalfa to support their forage needs?"
Answer:
There’s no guideline as to how long an alfalfa stand will remain productive. Some alfalfa stands are decimated by insects, disease or adverse weather conditions in a year or two, while others remain healthy and productive for five years or more. We used to say that a stand is productive if it has at least 3 or 4 plants per square foot, but in recent years we’ve modified this guideline to stems per square foot. As alfalfa stands thin out, the crowns get larger and produce more stems per crown, so stem counts are more reliable than plant counts. Highly productive alfalfa fields normally have over 50 stems per square foot, and when stem counts drop below 40 per square foot it’s generally recommended that the field be rotated out of alfalfa.
A field of alfalfa with at least 40 stems per square foot harvested three times per season should produce at least four tons of dry matter per acre. This won’t provide all the forage needed by a dairy cow and her replacement heifer, but combined with about an acre of corn (harvested as silage) it should provide enough forage dry matter for good levels of milk production. A commonly used guideline is one acre of alfalfa (or alfalfa-grass) and one acre of corn silage per cow and her replacement. That’s an old guideline and while milk production—and therefore dry matter intake—have increased, so have alfalfa and corn yields!
Answer kindly provided by Ev Thomas, Oak Point Agronomics, at the request of the Silage Doctor
Question:
"I have a ryelage that has what I have been told is a high level of butyric acid. What caused this and what problems may I have feeding this ryelage?"
Analysis of the ryelage showed it was 18.7% dry matter, with a pH of 4.9. The ryelage contained 11.2% ash, ammonia was just under 42% of the crude protein, lactic acid just 1.8%, while acetic acid was 7.4% and butyric just over 3.4%
Answer:
This ryelage is a low dry matter material (just under 19% DM) and has suffered a strong secondary clostridial fermentation. This has caused significant proteolysis, leading to a very high level of ammonia (42% of the CP) and the excessive butyric acid level (3.42%). The clostridia have probably been introduced by soil contamination (ash is >11%) and the natural lactic bacterial population on the crop or/ and in the product used on the material has been unable to bring the pH down quickly enough to keep control of the fermentation. As the clostridia have grown, they have used both sugars and lactic acid as food sources, producing butyric acid and also causing significant losses of dry matter and energy. This has resulted in the low level of lactic acid found on analysis. Clostridia also produce acetic acid in some reactions with amino acids, in part responsible for the high level of acetic acid seen.
This material is likely dark-colored and foul smelling, due to the butyric acid (classically described as smelling of mouse or rat droppings) and also because of other products produced by some of the clostridia as they degrade proteins and amino acids (e.g. methylmercaptan by deamination of methionine, and putrescine and cadaverine by the decarboxylation of arginine and lysine, respectively).
The ryelage will have to be fed very carefully indeed. It is recommended that high butyric silages like this ryelage are not fed to pregnant or transition cows. For other milking cows intakes should be managed to keep butyric acid intake below 50 g/ head/ day. This would mean feeding less than 17 lb of this ryelage on a fresh weight basis (3.2 lb DM basis), assuming no other material containing butyric acid is fed alongside.
Best regards,
The Silage Doctor
Question:
“Cereal silage is being harvested when the temperature ranged from -5 to 10 degrees C. at 70% plus moisture. What concerns would you have and how would you deal with them?”
-Dave
Answer:
Dear Dave,
Obviously this does raise some issues. As you know, as the temperature decreases, the rate of biological processes decreases, which includes the growth and fermentation rates of the bacteria required to ensile the crop. This is coupled with the fact that the cereal silage crop is usually low in natural lactic bacteria, as it is mature material. Confoundingly, this also means that it is more likely to be carrying a high level of yeasts and molds, leading to potential issues with aerobic stability. Thus it is important that the material be treated with something that is going to minimize yeast and mold growth in the silage, and something that will get going at the low ambient temperatures. If this is a microbial, then it itself will generate heat as it grows, and so in large silage structures filled in the dead of winter, typically we still see the silage reaching temperatures in the 20′s (Celsius). Check to see that the microbial has been tested and or proven in commercial use in these wintery conditions.
Preventing yeast and mold growth basically boils down to one of two options: Lactobacillus buchneri-based inoculants or the application of a propionic-acid based chemical additive at the rate recommended and validated by the manufacturer. Of the LB-based inoculants, only those containing a high dose rate (400,000 CFU/ g silage; 600,000 CFU/g HMC) of the strain L. buchneri 40788 have been reviewed by the US FDA and allowed to claim improved aerobic stability.
The final issue then is preventing the product from freezing in the tank while during chopping. This can be at least partially obviated by using an applicator with an insulated reservoir (e.g. the DE 1000 from Dohrmann). Additionally, with the Biotal brand inoculants we have tested the inclusion of 10% anti-freeze in with the inoculant in the applicator reservoir and have found this effective and to have no negative effect on the viability of the Biotal products.
Under no circumstances should a dry applied product be used on this type of material.
Best regards,
The Silage Doctor
Question:
“We are exporting our corn silage to the neighbors countries, we are looking to increase the dry matter up to 50/60%. To minimize the transportation cost, we decided to mix the corn straw with the corn silage and 10% molasses.
To reach the maximum dry matter, but as known the corn straw fiber contain high lignin, what should I add to make the corn straw more digestible and get the best result?”
-General Manager
Mounir George Khamis
Answer:
Dear Sir,
Thanks for your question.
One strategy that has been employed successfully to enhance the digestibility of straw is to treat with anhydrous ammonia. I am also aware of people having used caustic soda to treat and enhance the straw digestibility. Both these approaches result in an alkaline material, so there has to be some care taken to make sure that the pH is increased to a point that ensures stability (c. 9).
It would also be possible to treat the material with an inoculant containing an enzyme formulation, but the improvement in digestibility would be less dramatic than with either anhydrous ammonia or caustic.
Some information on caustic treatment:
- A variety of methods of treating straw with alkalis–NaOH, NH3 and Ca(OH)2–have been developed. These vary in cost of treatment, effectiveness and suitability for different situations. They are broadly classified into soaking (wet) methods and spray (dry) methods. In the former the straw is soaked in 10 or more litres of a 1.5% NaOH solution/kg straw and washed in a closed system from which water is not discarded. A wet straw is produced with a sodium content of about 2%. Organic matter digestibility increases by 20 percentage units for an expenditure of 4–5 kg of NaOH/100 kg straw. Dry methods increase digestibility by 15 units with 4–5 kg NaOH if heat is applied; otherwise the increase is only about 10 units. When dry-treated straw is the main component of the diet, the level of NaOH/100 kg straw must be limited to 4–5 kg to avoid stress to animals from sodium. Higher levels of 7–9 kg/100 kg straw can, however, be used to obtain still greater increases in digestibility when straw constitutes only half of the diet. Ca(OH)2 is as effective as NaOH, but, because it is less soluble, reacts more slowly and Ca(OH)2-treated straw must therefore be ensiled for 4–5 months. NH3 is less effective than NaOH, the maximum increase in digestibility being about 12 units. This is achieved with 3–4 kg. NH3/100 kg straw at ambient temperatures and treatment periods of 2–8 weeks. Heating does not appear to improve the efficiency of NH3 treatment. Detailed descriptions of each method are given in this report and each method is critically evaluated.
- The initial digestibility of straw varies between 35 and 55%. Treatment increases this by 10–20 units depending upon the method used, the extent of increase among straws being more or less independent of initial digestibility. Thus treated straw varies widely in digestibility, and this variability is as much as is encountered in hay and silage. For efficient utilization, farmers will have to be advised individually on the use of treated straw as they are for hay and silage; i.e., the digestibilities of individual lots of treated straw will have to be determined by in vitro techniques by the advisory service and feeding recommendations made to suit the quality of the straw. Factors which affect initial digestibility are specie, variety, year, and method of handling.
- The digestibility of treated straw can be depressed if it is fed in diets with more than about 30% concentrates, as is the digestibility of all roughages. In general this depression is greater with highly digestible roughages than with those of lower digestibility. With straws this means that in high-concentrate diets the digestibility of treated and untreated straws often become the same; i.e., there is no benefit from treating straws used in high-concentrate diets. An exception to this appears to be if treatment is done with a larger amount of alkali–7–9 kg NaOH/100 kg. The high alkalinity of the straw probably counteracts the tendency with such diets for the pH of the rumen contents to fall and thus ensures the maintenance of conditions favourable to the activity of cellulolytic organisms.
For additional information, you may want to review the following items:
Ammoniation of straw using urea, ammonia gas or ammonium hydroxide
Ammoniation of Low-quality Roughages
Best regards,
The Silage Doctor
