If silage is not well compacted before storage, losses or spoilage result. Agroscope is researching the functional connections between compaction efficiency and silage quality.
Ideally, grass silage stored in a horizontal silo should be highly compacted. In this way, the residual oxygen content is used up swiftly during fermentation and fresh oxygen is only able to penetrate into the silage very slowly once the silage stack is opened. This stops harmful bacteria and fungi from spreading.
Increasing harvest yields require shorter and shorter silage-rolling times in the horizontal silo, which can lead to inadequate compaction. Consequences of this may be high energy losses or even bad-smelling fodder at which animals turn up their noses, and which is hence unusable. Agroscope is therefore examining the factors which play a role in compaction. One of a number of long-term objectives is the development of an assistance system which displays on a screen in the compaction vehicle where the silage is already well compacted, and in which areas it must be rolled yet further. This enables the farmer to store his grass efficiently yet thoroughly.
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