Silage inoculant reduces risk in challenging conditions

Written by Nadine Olsen, Ruminant and Forage Technical Services Manager, Nutritech

Even with relatively high costs of business for contractors and farmers, grass silage and lucerne silage remain one of the most cost-effective protein sources for livestock. At $1.60-$1.80/kg crude protein for grass and lucerne silage, compared with $2.50- $2.90 for concentrated protein sources such as soyabean meal, canola meal or distillers grains, making quality silage is well worth doing.

However, the current volatility in weather conditions makes for a challenging silage season for many contractors. With wet ground and narrow harvest windows comes the risk of low dry matter forages and more soil contamination. Both of these factors can result in poor silage fermentations, which in turn increases the risk of dissatisfied clients.

While quality silage inoculant cannot solve all the problems associated with making silage, it can help with the following challenges:

• Wet silage – silage that is low in dry matter needs more acid. The more water that is in the crop, the more acid that needs to be produced to bring the silage pH down below the ‘risk zone’ that is >pH 5.0. This is where adding specifically selected bacteria that make strong acids (such as those in MAGNIVA® Classic) is very effective. When these bacteria dominate, there is less risk of weaker acids being formed.
• Soil contamination – soil is a key source of clostridial bacteria, a group of bacteria that can cause significant silage spoilage. Some clostridia breakdown sugars, resulting in silages with low sugar and high butyric acid and some breakdown protein, giving high ammonia nitrogen. Both butyric acid and ammonia have strong smells that are unpalatable to livestock and can result in a lower feed value. Voluntary intakes of such silages tend to be low, and they can increase the risk of thermoduric grades in milk. Fortunately, clostridia growth slows significant once the pH falls below 5.0, so the faster and more efficiently the pH can drop, the less time there is for clostridial bacteria to flourish.

Silage that is low in dry matter or has soil contamination is at risk of significant silage losses. Losses can typically vary from 5 – 25% which, when taking the worst-case scenario, causes silage that once cost ~30 c/kg DM to produce and feed, ends up costing about 40 c/kg DM consumed. Using a quality silage inoculant significantly reduces the risk of such losses. Further benefits are accrued due to more milk or meat production per kg of silage and less thermoduric bacteria.

The Nutritech range of inoculants apply well tested, silage specific bacteria that help reduce the risks associated with ensiling grass and lucerne silage. These inoculants have been proven to produce higher quality silage with less silage losses, even in low dry matter grass and lucerne crops. In addition to specifically selected bacteria, inoculants such as MAGNIVA® Classic contain enzymes which on their own improve the quality of silage by increasing digestibility and ‘opening up’ plant tissues to make the inoculant more effective.

Contact the team at Nutritech to see how the MAGNIVA® range of inoculants can help reduce the risk for your contracting or farming business and improve silage outcomes.