In order for a dairy cow to produce a lot of milk, she needs to be given a variety of feed. Food includes high-quality hay, succulent feed, grain, and feed rich in vitamins and minerals. But, if in summer there are no problems with food, then in winter there is a need for succulent food. They can be successfully replaced if you prepare a sufficient amount of silage for cows in advance.
What is silo
The term “silage” refers to succulent feed prepared for long-term storage by fermenting the green part of cultivated and some wild plants.Processing occurs without air access, due to which all nutrients, minerals and vitamins are retained in the mass.
Silage is an excellent feed for farm animals, especially dairy cows, and is highly nutritious. It improves the digestion process and promotes better digestion of all other products used as feed. Silage is fed not only to herbivorous cattle and cows, but also to poultry, which further increases its value for farms and household plots.
What is it made from?
To make silage, green parts of agricultural and wild plants are used:
- Corn.
- Sunflower.
- Vegetable tops and trimmings.
- Weeds (except some plants that may be toxic to animals and birds).
- Pulp is a product of vegetable oil production, containing up to 22% fat.
- Cake is the pulp squeezed out as much as possible.
- Pulp is the extracted pulp of sugar beets, which is a waste product from sugar production.
- Stillage is waste from the production of alcohol.
The basis of silage is green components, to which other constituent elements are added in certain proportions.
Advantages and disadvantages
Silage is an extremely valuable, nutritious, succulent feed that is very useful for all farm animals and birds, including dairy cows. It has the following positive properties:
- High calorie content.
- Significant content of vitamin C, carotene, organic acids.
- Similar to fresh grass even in the cold winter.
- Possibility of consumption by all herbivorous farm animals and birds.
- Ability to improve digestion.
- Excellent digestion.
Thanks to these characteristics, silage is considered one of the best feeds that are introduced into the diet of dairy cows. It contributes not only to excellent animal health, but also to maintaining high levels of milk yield in winter with a limited amount of food, especially succulent food.
Among the disadvantages that silos have are the need to create special silo containers or pits, as well as compliance with the rules of silage and storage of finished products. Peasants and farmers will also need free space to place silos or pits and trenches.
Harvesting techniques at home
In order to obtain high-quality silage for cows, it is necessary to correctly calculate the timing of collecting plants for processing, correctly build a hole or trench, which is much more affordable and easier than buying an expensive silo tower. Plants must be mature, but not dry, otherwise it will not be possible to obtain a sufficiently nutritious product.
Plants that are too green will produce a lot of juice; it will be difficult to compact them tightly, which will lead to air entry, fermentation, and mold development. Dry products are hard and do not have high nutritional value for cows and cattle.
This primarily concerns corn silage. The grain and its tops do not ripen at the same time. For maximum quality and nutritional value, the grain should be ripe, and the stems and leaves should still be green and sufficiently juicy. It is believed that for feeding domestic animals and dairy cows in particular, silage prepared not in the summer, but after the onset of the first frost, is best suited.
A silo with a capacity of 2 cubic meters is made per cow. Most often it has a concrete bottom and the same or brick walls.Sides 20-30 centimeters high are made above the ground. They prevent water from entering the silo container. In summer, the pit can be used to store irrigation water, and before loading the silo, it must be dried and the walls whitened with lime.
A layer of dry leaves collected from the orchard is placed at the bottom of the pit, then layered with dry hay up to 10 centimeters thick. After this, waste from your own garden and vegetable garden is placed in the pit, including rejected small fruits, tops of root crops and the plants themselves, for example, small carrots and beets that are not suitable for storage and eating. Pumpkin vegetables chopped into pieces, sunflower remains along with baskets, corn stalks and cobs, cabbage, and so on are also placed there.
The prepared juicy mass is chopped directly in the pit with sharpened shovels with a straight cutting edge. Thanks to this processing, the mass is crushed and compacted. A “cushion” of dry leaves and hay placed on the bottom prevents damage to the bottom of the silo pit during such treatment.
It is important to compact the silage evenly, especially in corners where air pockets may remain. Corner areas are carefully pounded with wide sticks or tampers. The prepared silage is covered with apple leaves on top, covered with plastic film and covered with a layer of earth so that there is no air left under the tire.
The next step is to create a roof and insulate the silo pit. To do this, it is covered with boards, strengthened with stones so that it does not blow away with the wind.Then cover the container with a thick layer of plant residues that cannot be used for livestock feed. From above, the entire structure is once again covered with durable, waterproof material, for example, roofing felt, roofing felt or slate sheets.
Quality control
The ensiling process lasts approximately 3 weeks after loading plant and fruit residues, but it is believed that the longer the processing takes place, the more useful and nutritious the biomass is. The product cannot be opened during this period, because oxygen or water entering the silo will cause it to rot.
At the initial stage of product processing, a gas bubble forms above its surface. This is a signal that the silage process has started, and carbon monoxide is formed in the pit, which is a silage preservative. This bubble cannot be released because it will cause the silage to rot. The speed of silage removal for cows in winter should be 1-1.5 meters, and in summer – twice as much. Otherwise, this may cause the mass to heat up, resulting in loss of energy.
High-quality silage should be light brown in color and have a pleasant, slightly sour smell. A bad product has a dark color, a disgusting smell and mold inclusions. It cannot be used to feed animals, especially dairy cows. Large enterprises use special quality control, including specific analyzes for acidity levels, substance content, and nutritional characteristics.
How to feed silage to a cow
Silage is added to the feed of dairy cows in winter - early spring, most often after calving. By this time, her body needs additional nutrients and vitamins, and dry hay is no longer able to meet such requirements.In addition, the cow needs variety in food, and she is already tired of hay.
Most often, silage is added once a day, in the middle of the day. In the morning and evening the animal is given hay. The introduction of succulent feed with a high level of digestibility and nutritional qualities into the diet significantly increases milk yield and has a positive effect on the quality of milk.
Storage rules
In order for silage to retain its nutritional properties and not spoil, it is extremely important to follow these simple rules:
- Protect the product from air and moisture.
- Close the pit tightly after removing silage for feeding dairy cows.
- Cover the container from precipitation.
- Protect the product from exposure to ultraviolet radiation.
- Use a film that prevents liquid from evaporating from the mass and at the same time protects from external influences.
- Insulate the container, preventing the mass from freezing in extreme cold, which will lead to spoilage of the silage.
With a competent approach to creating silage for dairy cows, you can improve the quality of milk and increase its quantity even in winter.
