Timing is crucial to get the crop cut at the right stage, harvest soon after, and have someone packing the pit as the loads are coming in. The pit will need to also be covered as soon as possible to avoid losses with spoilage. You must have the right equipment and enough silage plastic available ahead of time so that you are not scrambling and trying to beat a fast-closing window of opportunity to get your crop in. If you have not yet found a site for and installed a concrete bunker, or dug into the ground an open three-sided pit designed for storing silage, you will need to have this arranged and completed well in advance of silage-making season. Or, if you do not have a bunker or pit dug out and prepared for proper ensiling, you need to find a place where you can create a silage pile that is well-drained and easily accessible during times when you need to access it without much trouble. {“smallUrl”:“https://www. wikihow. com/images/thumb/c/c6/482218615_c32fdf70fd_b. jpg/460px-482218615_c32fdf70fd_b. jpg”,“bigUrl”:"/images/thumb/c/c6/482218615_c32fdf70fd_b. jpg/728px-482218615_c32fdf70fd_b. jpg",“smallWidth”:460,“smallHeight”:345,“bigWidth”:728,“bigHeight”:546,“licensing”:"<div class="mw-parser-output">

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To test crop stage, squeeze a random kernel between your fingers to see how soft it is. At the soft-dough stage you should get a white, soft paste-like substance coming out from the seeds. If it’s more liquid than paste, the crop isn’t quite ready yet, but getting very close. Corn will be at the same stage when it is ready to be harvested for silage. However, to test if corn is ready, take an ear of corn, tear off the husks and break the cob in half. An old rule of thumb is to look for the “milk line” (the line made where the solid and liquid parts of the kernels divide, and tends to progress from the outer edge of the kernel in towards the cob). This milk line should be half to two-thirds of the way in to the cob (the kernels are 2/3 yellow and 1/3 white, for example)[1] X Research source . Weeds are a bit of a non-issue with a silage crop. It’s being made into feed, not being sold for grain, and the animals aren’t going to judge if they find a tiny bit of wild buckwheat in with the rest of the feed.

It will be a different story with corn and sorghum, or sorghum-sudan grass. This step will not be needed for this type of crop because the swaths will be to large and difficult for a forage harvester to get through. Instead, these crops will be straight-cut, with a header that is suited for large-stemmed crops like corn.  Straight-cutting small-cereals like barley and oats for silage is not an issue and an option to consider. With swathing, though, it actually allows the crop to dry down a bit more than if left standing, allowing you to harvest it at a lower moisture than what you would get if harvesting it as a standing crop. Straight-cutting small-cereals like barley and oats for silage is not an issue and an option to consider. With swathing, though, it actually allows the crop to dry down a bit more than if left standing, allowing you to harvest it at a lower moisture than what you would get if harvesting it as a standing crop. Silage should be put up at around 60 to 70% moisture for best preservation activity. A higher moisture silage will be more prone to seepage or freezing, making things difficult for transport. Nutrients are also lost with the seepage, particularly nitrogen that has been broken down by microbes in the silage. Lower moisture may not guarantee the best fermentation activity, particularly if silage is put up at less than 40 to 45% moisture.

Silage can be put up at higher moisture, but as mentioned above seepage will be an issue. Also, the low temperature fermentation activity can provide a suitable environment for undesirable clostridial bacteria that are prone to cause maladies like listeriosis and botulism.

The forage harvester’s cutter blades will need to be set at the right setting so that the forage is cut at the right chop-length. For small grains, set the blades so that they are cutting up forage between 3⁄8 inch (0. 95 cm) and 1⁄2 inch (1. 3 cm). Larger crops like corn and sorghum-sudan should be chopped at lengths from 1⁄2 inch (1. 3 cm) to 3⁄4 inch (1. 9 cm). Since the forage harvester does not have a storage compartment on it like combine harvesters do, a truck with a silage unit on it, a tractor with a silage wagon, or a large unit designed for collecting silage from the forage harvester–called a “Jiffy wagon”–needs to be used to collect the freshly cut forage. The Jiffy wagon, for example, acts as the storage compartment for the forage harvester. Once full, it can be dumped into a truck as shown in the sequence of photos here. {“smallUrl”:“https://www. wikihow. com/images/thumb/5/53/Daddumpingstage1. jpg/460px-Daddumpingstage1. jpg”,“bigUrl”:"/images/thumb/5/53/Daddumpingstage1. jpg/722px-Daddumpingstage1. jpg",“smallWidth”:460,“smallHeight”:357,“bigWidth”:722,“bigHeight”:560,“licensing”:"<div class="mw-parser-output">

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An exchange is made between the wagons and/or trucks so that the person operating the forage harvester doesn’t need to stop and wait every so often. Once the first truck is full, the harvester stops briefly so that the truck can pull away and the second one moves into position. The first truck returns after dropping its load off to get another load, and so the process repeats.

Packing is what helps encourage fermentation activity and discourages spoilage. The more the pile is packed down, the less pockets of oxygen there are. Oxygen pockets create spoiled feed; aerobic-loving bacteria turn it into a brown to black slimy mess, that often smells like tobacco or burnt caramel. In other words, instead of fermenting the feed (which is producing a significant amount of acid as a means to preserve the feed), the presence of oxygen decomposes it into a substance equivalent to manure. You don’t want feed that is messy and gross like manure (think cow poop). If you don’t like the look, feel and smell of it, neither will your animals! Silage piles must be longer and wider than they are tall. The higher the pile is built up, the wider the edges will need to be. A concrete bunker will control how wide you can make the pile, though you can pack several feet above, but only so much that the sides are not over-flowing. A rule of thumb for pile-size is larger at the base than the top; no less than 12 to 15 feet (3. 7 to 4. 6 m) wide at the top to prevent roll-overs or slippage from machinery; and silage piles should only be 12 to 15 feet (3. 7 to 4. 6 m) tall, mainly for farm safety reasons[2] X Research source . The best way to tell if you have done a good packing job is when you try to sink your fingers into the pile. If you only get in so far as your second knuckles of your first three fingers, then the pile has been packed very well, and has potential for being good feed in the winter with minimal spoilage.

Use 6 to 10 milliliters (0. 34  fl oz) plastic. This can be found at your local farm and ranch supply store. The heavier the plastic, the more effective it is at keeping oxygen out of the pile and reducing wastage with spoiling. The rolls are very heavy. Use a tractor loader with bucket teeth to carry the plastic to the pit so that you can unroll and unfold it. A trick to use is to insert a 6 feet (1. 8 m) long, heavy iron bar into the roll (like you would hanging a roll of toilet paper on a toilet-paper holder), and fashion thick wire or heavy chain that hangs on the teeth of the bucket. Hang the bar onto this. Important: White and black plastic must be used so that the white side is facing out, and the black against the fresh silage in the pit. The white side reflects sunlight and reduces excess heating from the sun, whereas the black side keeps heat inside. Trim off extra plastic and use that to cover the edges and sides that the plastic has not covered.

Old tires are much more gentler on the plastic because they do not cause punctures. Punctures are a serious danger of feed spoilage. All sides and all parts of the pile must be covered and held down well so to ensure the pile properly ensiles and spoilage is minimized.

Spoilage will not be localized, especially if the holes go from a tiny tear to a big rip, especially if wind is a problem.