# Direct Cutting of Silage



## UpNorth (Jun 15, 2009)

With all the rain everyone has been having I wanted to start a thread on this topic and will try to post some more links about it.

archive : Tips on how to make direct-cut vacuum silage

This article doesn't talk about applying formic acid, which is more common in the Scandanavian countries. Does anyone have any experience with any of this?


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## haybaler101 (Nov 30, 2008)

It is an efficient way of making manure with out actually feeding it to the cow. Moisture over 70% will lead to butyric acid production and clostridium and salmanella will run rampant.


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## UpNorth (Jun 15, 2009)

Another link Trimming Tractor Time

I agree that salmanella growth, and butyric acid production from clostridium growth would occur if oxygen was present in the pile.

However, this system is using a vacuum to remove oxygen from the storage pile. I'll try to find some univeristy research on this and see if anyone has tested this in an oxygen free setting.

Also it seems like the forage ensiled can make a difference, grasses being less likely to have these issues than alfalfa.


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## UpNorth (Jun 15, 2009)

SARE Dynamic Content System

The link above was a study conducted in New England on this topic.

The length of cut is also different in this system. Flail choppers are used and they leave a longer cut forage. Historically the push was to finer chopping to allow easier flow down an upright silo.

In a finer cut forage more of the plant nutrients that can be used by microbes would be present in the liquid and would be a perfect environment for the growth of clostirdium and salmenella growth.

However if the forage is a longer cut less of the plant nutrients would be in that large pool of moisture for the growth of the microbes in addition to the lack of oxygen in a vacuum sealed pile.


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## UpNorth (Jun 15, 2009)

SARE Dynamic Content System

While this link is 11 years old it has a nice break down of costs of other silage systems.


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## hismatthew (Jul 30, 2010)

The direct cut vacuum system is very new to the industry and is only now starting to be tested. Alpha Ag is a family that uses this system and has had no problems. Supposedly it even preserves the omega-3s in the forage, unlike traditional silage. The guy that introduced the system to them has been doing this for 15 years with no problems. And in case you are wondering, I am not affiliated with Alpha Ag. I just stumbled upon them online.


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