Losses in the Conservation of Heavily‐wilted Herbage Sealed in Polythene Film in Lined Trench Silos

Abstract

A conservation experiment is described in which the losses in ensiling heavily-wilted herbage, of approximately 50% dry matter, in lined trench silos, with and without a polyethylene film seal, are compared. The composition and digestibility of the silages produced in the sealed silos were comparable with those of the original herbage. The content of organic acids in the sealed silos was low, suggesting that fermentation was suppressed by the partially gas-tight seal. In the unsealed silos there was considerable spoilage, 70% of the material being inedible. In the 2 sealed silos losses of dry matter were 8-2 and 5-2% and losses of SE 11-5 and 7-8%, respectively. The losses recorded are compared with those usually encountered in lined trench silos.

Losses in the Nutritive Value of Heavily‐wilted Herbage Ensiled in Evacuated and Non‐evacuated Polythene Containers

“…The mean fibre increases of 2-9% in the completely-sealed silage and of 2-5% in the evacuated silage compared with the herbage indicate a loss of other constituents, although The volatile organic-acid, volatile-base and amino-acid contents are given in Table 2, together with the pH values. The pH values, although lower than those obtained earlier for this type of material do reflect a low organicacid production, an observation which is consistent with previous observations on this type of material (3,4,14).…”

“…The strip-seal method of enclosing the material within the plastic proved very satisfactory and was simpler and quicker than the heat-sealing process or sealing by means of adhesive tape, both of which procedures we have used in previous experiments (3,4).…”

The Conservation of Grass in Sealed Metal and Plastic Containers, With and Without Ground Barley Meal

“…Larabee and Sprague (13) and Jackson (11) also reported losses in the region of 5 to 10% for herbage enclosed in polythene. The larger loss in Experiment 2 described in this paper was probably due to the smaller amount of material ensiled compared to the large-scale experiments carried out by Brown and Kerr (7) and Jackson (11). The amount of surface wastage in Experiment 2 was thus a large proportion of the total weight of silage removed.…”

“…However, the DM loss was similar to the maximum calculated DM loss resulting from the fermentation of soluble carbohydrates reported by McDonald and Whittenbury (15) and Anderson and Jackson (4). The DM losses of the material sealed in polythene were much higher than the 5% loss reported by Brown and Kerr (7). Larabee and Sprague (13) and Jackson (11) also reported losses in the region of 5 to 10% for herbage enclosed in polythene.…”

The Conservation of Heavily–wilted Baled Herbage in Sealed Polythene Containers

“…The ideal method for preserving this type of material is a completely gas-tight system; extremely low losses of DM have been reported for haylage stored in gastight towers (8,12,14). The use of plastic films to provide a partly gas-tight seal for silage has recently been investigated (3,9), with promising results. The introduction of vacuum silage has further emphasized the use of plastic film in silage preservation.…”