By today there are 110 silage additives available commercially, covering a wide variety of types. The use of additives is not a substitute for a good silage making technique and attention to detail is still as important as ever. For inoculants to be effective fermentable sugars must be available to the lactic acid producing bacteria, and this availability is dependant on grass variety and type, maturity, sunlight, temperature, time of day and the quantity and timing of nitrogen fertiliser application, wilting will help to concentrate sugar levels, as will the presence of an effective cell wall degrading enzymes. Clamped grass silage is taken in two cuts at Penglais, ideally, the first during the second week of May, the second following 6 to 7 weeks later, depending on grass growing conditions. Unfortunately, due to wet weather, in common with many other farmers, the cutting of the first cut of silage was delayed until 17 May at Penglais.
Additional silage is conserved as round bales as and when grass growing conditions allow.
Clamp grass silage conservation is carried out on all farms by a team of tractor drivers drawn from the Institute farms and the use of a self-propelled forage harvester provided by a local contractor. Our Lely Optimo 240 disc mowing machine, Krone KW 550-4 rotary tedder, Claas Liner 470 S rake, three silage trailers and a JCB 526S telescopic handler are used for the task. A biological inoculant is applied to preserve silage. These are transferred to the calf rearing unit before they are seven days old. They spend their first summer at grass before being housed at Morfa Mawr for the winter.