5620 x 3732 px | 47,6 x 31,6 cm | 18,7 x 12,4 inches | 300dpi
Data acquisizione:
2008
Ubicazione:
Alford Aberdeenshire Grampian Region Scotland
Altre informazioni:
Silage is fermented, high-moisture fodder that can be fed to ruminants (cud-chewing animals like cattle and sheep) or used as a biofuel feedstock for anaerobic digesters. It is fermented and stored in a process called ensilage, and usually made from grass crops, including maize or sorghum, using the entire plant, not just the grain. Silage can be made from many other field crops, and other terms (oatlage for oats, haylage for alfalfa) can be used. It is sometimes a mix of two crops, such as oats and peas. Haylage means ensiled forages, made up of grass, alfalfa and alfalfa/grass mixes. This is used extensively in the Midwest and Northeastern areas of the United States. It is also used widely in Europe for dairy cattle diets. Balage is another form of stored forage. In this case hay, alfalfa or grass is cut and baled while still fairly wet. That is, it is too wet to be baled and stored as hay. In this case the dry matter is around 60 to 70%. The bales are wrapped tightly in plastic wrappers. The material then goes through a limited fermentation in which short chain fatty acids are produced which protect and preserve the forage. This method has become popular on smaller farms. Silage undergoes anaerobic fermentation, which starts about 48 hours after the pit is filled. Traditionally, the fermentation is caused by indigenous microorganisms, but today, some silage is inoculated with specific microorganisms to speed fermentation or improve the resulting silage. The process converts sugars to acids and exhausts any oxygen present in the crop material. The fermentation is essentially complete after about two weeks. Silage inoculants contain one or more strains of lactic acid bacteria, and the most common is Lactobacillus plantarum. Other bacteria used in inoculants include Lactobacillus buchneri, Enterococcus faecium and Pediococcus species.
