Forage Technology 🐮

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All the more reason to #backbritishfarming NOW #nofarmersnofood #britishfood #FarmTok

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It's unfortunately still true today 👏🏼 #nofarmersnofood #backbritishfarming #FarmTok #agriculturetiktok

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This silage has had a bad time with high nitrate. 🟡 The dark yellow patches are staining from nitrogen dioxide gas. When a high-nitrate crop is ensiled, enterobacteria turn that nitrate into nitrite and then into nitric oxide. If oxygen gets in, that gas becomes nitrogen dioxide. It is toxic, dangerous to humans and cows, smells a bit like bleach, and where it meets moisture it turns to nitric acid. That acid is what bleaches the silage dark yellow to orange. (Side note: we have several posts on nitrate already, with more to come). 🟣 The pinky-purple stuff is crushed salt. Instead of being spread thin as a top dressing, it has been thrown on in big clumps. Those clumps have killed off most of the good, natural, fermentation bacteria, and restricted the additive, so oxygen, enterobacteria, yeasts and moulds have had a free run. That is exactly the setup that turns crop nitrate into this yellow stain. Our advice: 1️⃣ Throw away the top few feet of waste. 2️⃣ Keep people and stock clear of any yellow-brown gas. 2️⃣ If you use salt, spread it well. No clumps. 3️⃣ Do not open early. Enterobacteria need a full fermentation, around 60 days, to work the nitrate down. 4️⃣ Do your homework before you cut. Sampling for nitrate, and cutting a bit higher, keeps you out of the high-nitrate zone and can save you more usable silage than it costs.