Moisture deficits are evident, grass growth has come to a halt and many farmers have been forced to utilise their winter forage stocks.

As feed reserves for the winter are now being used, farmers are beginning to turn their attentions to using other alternatives such as wholecrop silage. Wholecrop is a good alternative forage and a useful complementary forage for grass silage.

Wholecrop silage is relatively easy to preserve, however, as it contains a higher starch and sugar content, it is vulnerable to aerobic spoilage. It is fundamental to ensure that the quality in the field makes it to feedout, therefore a focus must be placed on the ensiling process.

“In order to optimise the quality of your wholecrop silage, target harvesting when dry matter is 35-40% with a chop length of 3-5cm” states Agritech Techincal Director, Seamus O’Slatarra.

“Apply a good quality preservative such as Ensile Bio to ensure a rapid cool fermentation. Ensile-Bio inhibits spoilage organisms to produce a cool silage which is stable and highly palatable leading to maximum production. It increases clamp stability by at least 3 days, reduces losses, increases palatability, inhibits mycotoxin producing moulds and improves fermentation.”

For ease of application, Ensile Bio is available as granular powder or sachet for liquid application.

For more information, contact your local Agritech distributor.