Storage Structure and Management

Tower silo capacity spreadsheets

These spreadsheets calculate an estimate of the dry matter capacity when a top unloading and bottom unloading tower silo is filled and after removing some silage.

Focus on forage storage management

The fourth Focus on Forage webinar in the 2023 series, Focus on Storage aims to provide WI farms and agricultural professionals with current research-based recommendations regarding hay bale and hay baleage storage and management.

Drive-over silage pile construction

Properly constructed, a drive-over silage pile can provide efficient and economical silage storage. Proper design, filling, covering and feed-out is critical for optimizing silage dry matter recovery from a drive-over pile.

Big Bale Storage Losses; how different options stack up

When harvesting baled hay, it’s not always easy to control weather-related losses, but storage loses should be more controllable. After all, a lot of time, energy and expense have gone into producing a high quality and high value baled product.

Propionic Acid Preservatives for Hay

Hay producers working in humid environments are well-acquainted with the consequences of baling moist hays, which include heating, molding, losses of dry matter (DM) and nutritive value, and the possibility of spontaneous combustion.

Ensiling

Plant sugars are fermented by anaerobic bacteria to organic acids which reduce the pH of the plant material. This process preserves the crop during long-term storage.

Lactobacillus buchneri for silage aerobic stability

Lactobacillus buchneri is a bacterial inoculant approved for use in grass silages, corn silage, legume silage and high moisture grains. Lactobacillus buchneri has been demonstrated to improve aerobic stability of silages by reducing the growth of yeasts.

Microbial inoculants for silage

Ensiling is an important means to preserve forage quality. Although silage fermentation occurs naturally under anaerobic conditions due to the native bacteria on plants, the speed and efficiency of the fermentation (pH drop) is variable, depending on the numbers and types of lactic acid bacteria on the crop.