NEW CONCEPTS OF FODDER PRESERVATION

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NEW CONCEPTS OF FODDER PRESERVATION

• Presented by
• Prof. Dr. Makhdoom Abdul Jabbar
• Chairman. Deptt. Of Food Nutrition
• UVAS, Lahore

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CROP QUALITY

• Legumes better than grasses
• Cool season better than warm season
• Annuals better than perennials

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WHY FODDER PRESERVATION ON MODERN LINES IS
ESSENTIAL

• It just so happened that traditional
  farming imposed a continuous low intensity
  management regime for long periods of time (gt1000
  years in many places).
• So, Modern preservation techniques
• are important to get
• Better Animal Performance
• Reproductive Performance
• Milk Production
• More Economic Returns

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PRESERVED FODDER (HAY VS. SILAGE)

• Hay is stored dry
• Silage is stored wet
• Moisture is problem with hay while air is problem
  for silage
• Many steps in making hay are similar to silage,
  i.e. growth stage, cutting, windrows
• pH of hay should be similar to that of the
  standing crop in the field
• pH of silage must be acidic to be stable
  Temperature for both should be low and stable
  after 30 days

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HAY QUALITY

• Critical
• Moisture
• Palatability
• Mold, dust, stems
• Weeds foreign matter
• Nutritive value
• Protein
• NDF and NDF digestibility
• Maturity
• Leaf stem ratio

• The two most important factors concerning hay
  quality which is considered to affect 60 of hay
  quality are
• stage of harvest
• leafiness.
• Color, odor, and softness have a less direct
  impact on hay quality.

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SILAGE MAKING
Ensiling is a method of feed preservation.
Which is based on removal of oxygen To promote
fermentation of sugars into lactic acid by
lactic-acid bacteria Causing an increase in
acidity (a ? in pH) Which inhibits further
silage degradation by Plant enzymes
Undesirable bacterial species (clostridia, yeast
and mold)
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WAYS TO IMPROVE SILAGE QUALITY

• Ensile the forage when it has the
• proper moisture content (35 DM)
• 30 - 40 for bunker silos
• 35 50 for tower silos
• 40 50 for wrapped round bales

• Filling a silo should be a continuous process
  with delays no longer than overnight.
• The last load of the day should be packed
  particularly well to reduced oxygen
  penetration overnight.

• Pack the silage as much as possible to expel
  oxygen and favor growth of lactic acid
  bacteria.

• Avoid contamination of the silage mass from
  soil.

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DIFFERENT TECHNIQUES OF SILAGE MAKING

• Monitor filling, emptying of bag silos to
• Measure densities and losses
• Determine factors affecting each

Silage Bags
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DIFFERENT TECHNIQUES OF SILAGE MAKING (CONT)
Silage Bunker
Upright Silos
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HOW TO MAKE QUALITY SILAGE

• Compaction
• Press it with tractor to remove air

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TYPES OF BUNKERS /PITS

• DIRT BUNKERS
• Easy to dig
• Low cost
• Easy to press

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TYPES OF BUNKERS/PITS
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Types of Bunkers/Pits
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FILLING OF BUNKER SILO

• . Fill the bunker as early as possible before it
  is dry
• Complete harvesting and chopping in one day

Clean Bunker face
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COVERING THE BUNKER

• Polyethylene Sheet (6 mil) or thicker
• Suck the air out? (shrink wrap)
• Weight the plastic down with 20-25 tires
• per 100 sqft of surface area.
• Weight down edges
• Seal up holes (check frequently)

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SILAGE COST

• Approximate cost of silage making
• crop Rs. 1/Kg
• chopping, packing, storage Rs 0.25/Kg
• bunker cost one time cost vary with type
• animal needs 30 Kg/day
• Silage may cost less than Rs 2/Kg with high
  nutrition

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Tentative target

• Making silage package which is transportable
• 1. Small bag silos
• 2. Compressed and wrapped bales of silos
• Economics-?

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TYPES OF HAY

• Hay is made from legumes, grasses and cereal
  crops including
• alfalfa, clover, soybeans, cowpeas, oats, barley,
  wheat, rye, Bermuda grass, orchard grass, fescue,
  timothy etc
• Alfalfa accounts for over 50 of US hay crop

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BEST CASE HAYMAKINGSMALL BALES
Purchased hay is delivered to an Iowa farm
(Courtesy of Mark Kirkpatrick)
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HARVESTING

• Freshly cut hay is typically 75-80 water and
  must be field-dried to lt15 (85 DM) moisture
  prior to harvest

Not too dry!!
Not too Wet!!
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STORAGE LOSSES

• The extent of heating depends largely on (1) the
  moisture of the hay, (2) the density and size of
  the bale, (3) the rate of bale dry-down and (4)
  the microbial populations present on the hay.
• The biological activity in hay does not
  necessarily terminate at baling, especially if
  baling is done at higher moistures (20-30) to
  reduce leaf shatter losses.
• Hay does not become static until it reaches about
  12 moisture and the equilibrium humidity is
  below 65 at which time most fungi will not grow.

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MODERN HAY HARVESTING SYSTEMS
Long, Loose Hay

• Declined sharply in recent years
• High labor cost
• Too bulky for mechanized feeding (e.g. TMR
  rations)

Two methods of handling Loading with a
hay-loader directly from windrows Hay
is then transported to barn or stack Stacks Loaf
shaped mechanically pressed haystacks Range in
size Hay is fed out as loose hay or baled later
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LOAF LIKE STAKED HAY
Loaf like stacked hay is released from the
stacking wagon
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CHOPPED HAY

• Field chopping forage directly from the windrow
• Two kinds
• Green chop typically 50-60 moisture
• More common as palatable topdress before TMRs
  became popular
• Dry chop typically 30-40 moisture
• Saves more leaves compared to dry hay
• Mixes well into TMRs and not hauling as much
  water as green chop
• Chopping into barn or other storage area
• Hauled from windrow to barn where it is chopped
  by a hay chopper and blown to storage area
• Not commonly practiced

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Hay from the windrow is field-chopped and blown
into dump wagons for transport to the storage
facility
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BALES

• Rectangular bales
• Conventional, small
• Weigh 60-140 lbs
• Large round bales
• Method of rolling hay into a bale
• Pick up from windrow and roll into chamber
• Roll windrow on ground
• Weigh from 850-2,000 lbs

During last 50 years, round bales, large
rectangular bales, and cubes have been developed
Better adapted to outside storage than small
bales Less surface area per unit
volume Unrestricted access results in excess waste
Packed Hay
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Handling large square bales requires less labor
but more equipment
A small rectangular bale of alfalfa hay is thrown
into a hay wagon by a baler with a thrower
attachment
A round baler rolls long-stem alfalfa hay into
large round bales
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CUBES

• Stationary or mobile cubers
• Mobile cubers pick up windrows of forage and
  produce dense high-quality forage cubes
• Add water (and sometimes up to 5 dolomite to
  poor quality hay with fewer leaves) to stick
  cubes together
• Have to dry cubes on a slab before transporting
• Have advantages of pellets without the
  disadvantages
• Readily automated
• Lower transportation/storage cost than long hay

A hay cuber in action
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PELLETS

• Pellet forages finely ground, then condensed
• Disadvantage
• Difficulty of processing chopped forage coarse
  enough so it wont cause digestive problems (lack
  of effective fiber or ration scratch)
• Recommend minimum of ¼ inch chop

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Harvesting Agents

• Additives for baling higher-moisture hay in an
  attempt to harvest more leaves, compete with poor
  harvest weather and protect the hay in storage

Organic Acids
Organic acids, principally propionic or
propionic-acetic acid blends, applied at the
baler, have generally proven effective in
preventing mold and subsequent heating in high
moisture hay
Their effectiveness is largely dependent upon the
application rate of active ingredients and the
moisture content of the hay
Recommended application rates of actual acid for
small square bales generally range from.5-1
for 20-25 moisture hay up to 1.5 acid for
31-35 moisture hay.
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HARVESTING AGENTS DRYING AGENTS (desiccants)

• The use of chemical drying agents (desiccants)
  consisting of potassium or sodium carbonate,
  sodium silicate and citric acid (aids dissolving
  in hard water) help speed the drying of the stem
  to that of the leaf.

Acid Salts
Acid salts such as sodium diacetate have also
been used on high moisture hay. Sodium
diacetate appears to inhibit the growth of mold
by elevating the acetic acid level in baled hay.
Ammonization
Anhydrous ammonia, an effective fungicide, has
also been used as an additive on high moisture
hay. The ammonia apparently sterilizes the hay,
killing organisms that cause hay to mold.
Urea
Use as an alternative to ammonia.
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CONCLUSION

• The use of modern tools can improve the
  preservation quality of forage to many folds.
• However, one should take care about the proper
  specification of each technique for fodder
  harvesting, processing as well as preservation
  method.
• Availability of machinery and economics is of
  great
• concern in Pakistani situation