Open access publications in the SLU publication database

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.