Drying greens for winter feed

[Al Gerhart]

Not everything can be turned into silage. It must be high in carbs like corn and we also add yeasts to start the correct fermentation. Placing random greens into bags will most likely turn them into bags of rotting stuff

No.... that is not true. If you don't have personal experience please at least research before dismissing things. Smiley faces don't make things true when they are patently false.

It is the sugar content of the weeds or grass or potatoes that is needed. Not the carbs, you might add high carb/ high sugar things like molasses or even spoiled fruit that the bacteria can turn into sugar. But never did we add anything to the high sugar crops like corn silage. This is a pickling process, lactic acid needs produced by bacteria from the sugar content, like sour kraut.

And you HAVE to keep any yeast naturally present dormant by making the silage pile as air tight as possible. For God's sake, don't tell people to add yeast unless you intend on sabotaging their efforts. Yeast is what you HAVE to prevent from growing by keeping it as air tight as is possible. We would have some spoilage around the edges of the bunker but it was a small percentage and the animals would refuse to eat it if it was spoiled.

If you bag the grass or weeds and the bag is air tight it will turn into silage as long as you have around 4% sugar content. It can be a mix but we used to chop weeds, hay meadows, Bermuda if we had excess, just about anything growing and turn it into silage, rarely corn, it had other uses. Check online for the average sugar content if you are in doubt of a plant's ability to be ensiled. You do have to allow the low sugar plants like Bermuda grass to wilt before ensiling it. Sometimes Dad mixed in some molasses, feed grade, we had a big long tank with wheels the cows would lick to free choice the stuff.

Geeze....most of us don't post things that are false. If you don't agree at least do some simple research before calling someone out on an issue you know little about.

https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/AG180

 

[Altairsky]

It is the sugar content of the weeds or grass or potatoes that is needed. Not the carbs

So sugar is not carbs? If sugar is not a carbohydrate what is it?
I have a stable with 120 dairy cows, and that's how we do silage. If you do it in a different way there is no need to be rude.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Bacteria can turn complex carbs into sugars but it makes a lot more sense to use something with sugar content. Sugar is a TYPE of carb but most people associate carbs with starches or fiber foods. Sugar is a simple carb, the other two types are complex carbs. Simple carbs are bad for you, complex carbs are good for you.

But no one uses yeast in silage, that is what you have to inhibit.


Some use bacterial inoculate but it isn't needed, we never used it back in the day. Heck they probably didn't have it in the sixties. We used grass, weeds, odd pasture grass when we had more grass than cows.

Wilted grass and weeds + air tight bag = silage. A lot of animals might turn up their noses at first if they have never had silage but they will love it once they try it.

No yeast.

No yeast.

No yeast.

Air tight so you have anaerobic conditions. No pretty much air tight = rotten mess.

 

[Altairsky]

The world is big and things are done differently in different places. Again, no need to be rude.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Yes the world is big and people do different things but bacteria and yeast rarely do things different.

When making silage you HAVE to suppress the yeast at all costs, it will rot the silage, we close off the silage to keep oxygen away from it.

Adding yeast to silage just isn't done.

Yeast requires oxygen.

Yeast eats the sugars to produce carbon dioxide and alcohol.

If the yeast eats the sugar there is no sugar left to feed the bacteria that produce the needed lactic acid.

We need an anaerobic environment to allow the bacteria to produce the lactic acid to preserve the silage, to turn it into silage.

Basic facts and biology are not rude.