# What is "silage"



## Southern by choice (Oct 1, 2012)

I am completely ignorant to all things cattle. What exactly is silage? I was talking to a neighbor (he brought me some hay) and he was talking about the round bales that are wrapped, something about fermenting them for silage. (My bale is not wrapped just cut and baled.) He raises Black Angus.


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## SheepGirl (Oct 1, 2012)

Silage is pretty much the entire plant when it's harvested and it gets put into a silo or dark place to ferment. It's primarily fed to dairy cattle. Have you ever driven by a farm and seen the white with black tires on top? That's silage.


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## Southern by choice (Oct 1, 2012)

thank you, I was reading it is mostly fed to cattle and sheep. Not goats though, I thought sheep and goats were very similar.


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## Queen Mum (Oct 1, 2012)

Chaff hay which is sold in bales is silage with a commercial name tag on it.  It is quite good for the goats.  But you must make sure it is true silage.  And has no mold in it.  Good silage is very nutritious.


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## BrownSheep (Oct 1, 2012)

Ah silage, I live in silage country. They generally uses chopped corn around here and pile them in huge pits...which is more like huge hills. Or just on the ground forming hills. They then pack it using backhoes by driving all over it. They then tarp it. Over the course of 5 or 6 months the bacteria in the pit digest aka ferment it. Cow LOVE it because of the alcohol content in it. It can actually stink a little or a lot. We've fed it to our sheep and they enjoyed it. Google silage pit and it will show the pits and packing process. The picture with the two tractors on the hill is actually a local dairy Im familiar with.


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## WildRoseBeef (Oct 1, 2012)

Silage is chopped forage that has been fermented by anaerobic bacteria in a silo, a pit or enclosed in a plastic wrap.  We convert barley into silage up here, and yes, the cattle DO love it!!


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## Pearce Pastures (Oct 1, 2012)

Yeah, when we moved out to the sticks from the city, I remember the day I first encountered silage being made.  I was driving to work and was like WHAT IS THAT NASTY SMELL!    People at school just laughed and made city-girl comments.  I don't think it smells anymore but it was definitely different.


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## Queen Mum (Oct 1, 2012)

Where I come from silage is made from hay.  Pure hay.  With lactobacillus Acidopholus added.


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## Southern by choice (Oct 1, 2012)

Just googled it   Those pits are huge! So do the cows get drunk off the barley silage? 
One day I would like a cow when we have more land. I think I'll spend  some time reading in the cattle section. Our Vet/neighbor lent me a book called The Family Cow- it is very old, maybe I should start reading it.  I find them to be amazing creatures.


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## WildRoseBeef (Oct 2, 2012)

Southern by choice said:
			
		

> Just googled it   Those pits are huge! So do the cows get drunk off the barley silage?


Nope.  The "cows" (our steers, rather) simply got fat and grew very well on it.  The pile that we would make is considered small compared to most operations.  One pile we made was around 100' long x 25' wide x 60' tall.  We use what is called a forage harvester that picks up the swaths of barley and chops it up into 1/2" bits which is blown into a wagon or a truck that's being driven alongside the harvester. Once full, it's dumped against the pile itself.  Then when we've done around 7 to 8 loads we'd get the big dual-wheeled tractor to pile up these piles and pack down the pile to get all the air out.  This would continue until the field was all cleaned off.  Once the pile is really packed down as much as possible, we'd put silage plastic over top and around the pile, then putting tires and hay bales on and around the pile to hold the silage plastic down and add weight to the pile as well.  The plastic MUST surround ALL of the pile otherwise there will be spoilage.   Usually silage is ready to be fed within three to four weeks after being packed and piled together, but we never started feeding until 3 to 4 months later, when the snow would stick and stay on the ground. 

Air is the determinant of spoilage in silage.  If there are air pockets in a silo, bunker or pile or silage, the silage in and around that pocket will spoil, turning into a black/brown slimy gunk that the animals will not eat.  The brown stuff stinks worse than the silage itself.  

It's fun both climbing up the pile and sticking your arm down into the pile as far as you can.  It's surprising how fast the fermentation/anaerobic activity happens; literally immediately once the forage is chopped and piled into a pile.  I couldn't stick my arm very far past my elbow because it soon started getting VERY hot to the touch in that pile.

We never have to add any sort of bacterial culture to help with fermentation because it's in there already.    We don't do hay because alfalfa is a poor choice of forage to be used for silage; it's because of its stems which are too thick and coarse to be able to, well, ferment as easily as grasses like hay grasses or other cereal grasses are such as corn, barley, oats, etc.


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## Alice Acres (Oct 2, 2012)

Around here we see a lot less than we used too - mostly because there is just less livestock. It's primarily used for cattle (in fact I don't know of any silage around here used for anything but cattle) Both dairies and beef feedlots and beef on pasture get silage. It's chopped corn plants - stalks, ears - everything (harvested before it's totally ripe and still green). Some hay ground is also harvested for silage too. When fresh it's called "green chop" and when it's fermented it's called "silage". 
It's very nutritious and cattle love it.


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## Symphony (Oct 23, 2012)

My Cows loooove it and my Horses got their first taste of it this year when they were sharing a pasture and whoa, the Horses loved it too. They love Apples the Horses and Goats but the Cows it depends as some nibble and others don't even pay mind.  Some of my Horses like Pears but not all but everyone likes Watermelons.  Pumpkins I'm trying this year with the Cows but I know just a handful of my Horses like them.


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## Harbisgirl (Oct 23, 2012)

Thanks for asking - I've been wondering what it was too


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## chicks & ducks (Apr 19, 2014)

Hate to bump up an old thread, but as it was sort of the same topic I thought that was better than starting a new one. Anyway-in regards silage-I think I know the long silage things you guys are talking about but 
1)is it possible to get these in 4 or 5 foot round bales? I thought I heard that somewhere...
2)nutritionally is it better than, say, a good quality hay? Worse? The same?


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## WildRoseBeef (Apr 20, 2014)

chicks & ducks said:


> Hate to bump up an old thread, but as it was sort of the same topic I thought that was better than starting a new one. Anyway-in regards silage-I think I know the long silage things you guys are talking about but
> 1)is it possible to get these in 4 or 5 foot round bales? I thought I heard that somewhere...
> 
> *Yep, only this is more or less called "haylage" and it comes in bales wrapped completely in plastic. Round bales only, of course.*
> ...



Nutritionally silage is often always considered better than hay, but only if it's been wrapped and packed properly and cut at the right time. Cut too early, and there's a lot of waste with a lot of water seeping out. Cut too late and the fibre content is high enough that the nutritional content can be equivalent to good hay. If silage is done right, the protein and energy content is higher than with hay (fibre content lower) making it a good feed for animals that need it.


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## luvmypets (Apr 20, 2014)

What is it?


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## WildRoseBeef (Apr 21, 2014)

luvmypets said:


> What is it?



Silage is fermented feed for livestock. It's normally chopped up then packed tightly and stored in an anaerobic (oxygen deprived) environment where it is allowed to ferment for a time before being fed to cattle (or sheep or goats). As I mentioned above, if done properly it's one of the most high-quality feeds that can be fed to livestock.


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## Bossroo (Apr 22, 2014)

Just for a public service notice ...  Silage is a GREAT feed for cattle, sheep,  goats,  pigs and chickens and they eat it with great relish...  BUT ,  I have  tried to feed it to my 32 horses as well as several dozen client owned mares that were on my place for breeding ... not a single one would eat it. They would sniff it then snort at it, several tried a nibble, but   NADA.  I even held back all other feed for 3 geldings for 2 days, and they still would not eat it.   Back to alfalfa hay and pasture .


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## WildRoseBeef (Apr 22, 2014)

When we had to train our feeder steers to eat silage it took them about a week before they'd finally go for it with relish. Those horses, Bossroo, would probably be the same if you maybe had it in front of them for at least a week, but silage is still really high nutrient value even for horses; it'd be like feeding too much grain or alfalfa to them.


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## BrownSheep (Apr 22, 2014)

Wonder if it could be the "type" of silage, too. Around here you can get chopped corn silage or hay-lage


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