[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":46},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-silaj-kuru-madde-en":3},[4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18,20,22,24,26,28,30,32,34,36,38,40,42,44],{"p":5},"On a dairy farm the ration was made months ago and it works well. Every morning the mixer wagon operator follows the same loading list: so much corn silage, so much alfalfa hay, so much concentrate. One week is rainy, and then a new section of the bunker is opened. Within a few days milk in the tank falls, manure consistency changes and some cows chew their cud less. The loading list has not changed. What has changed is the water in the silage.",{"h2":7},"Fresh weight and dry matter",{"p":9},"A ration is worked out on dry matter. The cow's needs are defined by how many kilograms of dry matter she should eat and the energy, protein and fibre in that dry matter. But the wagon is loaded by fresh weight. How much of a kilogram of corn silage is dry matter depends on its moisture, and that moisture can change from layer to layer even in the same bunker.",{"p":11},"Take an example, with illustrative numbers. The ration provides 12 kg of corn silage dry matter per cow a day. When the ration was made, silage dry matter was measured at 35 percent, so the loading list carries about 34.3 kg of fresh silage per cow. After the rain and the new section, silage dry matter falls to 30 percent. The same 34.3 kg now supplies only about 10.3 kg of dry matter. Each cow is short by 1.7 kg of dry matter.",{"p":13},"If we assume about 6.6 MJ of net energy for lactation per kilogram of corn silage dry matter, that shortfall is about 11 MJ of energy. With roughly 3.2 MJ needed per kilogram of milk, that is about 3.5 kg of milk per cow a day. On a farm with a hundred cows, that is 350 kg of milk a day.",{"h2":15},"It is not only about energy",{"p":17},"When less dry matter comes from silage while the amount of concentrate stays the same, the forage share of the ration falls. In our example forage dry matter drops while concentrate is unchanged. The forage share of the ration falls by a few points and physically effective fibre declines. That raises the risk of rumen acidosis, especially in cows in early lactation. Less cud chewing and looser manure are the first signs.",{"p":19},"The reverse happens too. If silage comes in drier than expected, the cow gets more dry matter than planned, the forage share rises and the ration costs more than it needs to. Dry silage also mixes less well in the wagon and is easier for cows to sort.",{"h2":21},"Measuring dry matter on the farm",{"p":23},"Sending a sample to the lab is the most accurate way to measure silage dry matter, but the result takes a few days. There are faster methods on the farm. Drying a sample to constant weight in a microwave or a simple dryer built for the job gives a result close to the lab's within half an hour. What matters is to use the same method the same way every time and to take the sample from a mix gathered at different points across the silage face.",{"p":25},"How often to measure depends on the state of the silage. In a stable period, once a week may be enough. After rain, when moving to a new section of the bunker or when a new silo is opened, you need to measure several days in a row. When dry matter changes by more than a few points, the loading list should be updated to the new value.",{"h2":27},"Not only dry matter",{"p":29},"When a new silo or a new section of the bunker is opened, dry matter is not the only thing that changes. Because harvest date, hybrid and field conditions differ, NDF, starch and crude protein can change as well. So when you move to a new section, it is a good habit to send a sample to the lab for a full analysis in addition to the dry matter test.",{"p":31},"In corn silage, starch digestibility also rises with time in storage. In the first weeks after the silo is opened, starch is digested more slowly, while a few months later the same silage ferments faster in the rumen. For a herd fed the same silage over months, the starch level of the concentrate may therefore need reviewing. Bringing analysis results into the ration makes this slow change visible too.",{"h2":33},"Managing the silage face",{"p":35},"Silage quality is not settled only at harvest and packing. How the face is managed after the silo is opened matters at least as much. Silage exposed to air heats up again, yeasts and moulds grow, and both nutrient value and palatability fall. That is why the layer removed from the face each day needs to be thick enough to keep air from working its way in. The width of the bunker should be planned around the herd's daily intake.",{"p":37},"Keeping the face smooth and vertical, not leaving loose silage on the ground for more than a few hours and securing the cover carefully at the edge of the face all reduce heating. Keeping heated or mouldy sections out of the ration matters for both milk yield and animal health.",{"h2":39},"From analysis to loading list",{"p":41},"A dry matter test is only useful once it reaches the loading list. The most reliable way is to keep the ration on a dry matter basis and recalculate fresh weights with every new analysis. OptiFormula TMR keeps forage and silage analyses together with the feed library and produces the mixer wagon loading list from the ration. When silage dry matter is updated, the fresh weights per cow and per wagon load are recalculated to match.",{"p":43},"The ration's dry matter intake, cost per head and income over feed cost are part of the same calculation. Seeing side by side what updating the loading list costs and what it earns when silage dry matter falls also makes the conversation with farm management easier.",{"p":45},"Silage is the largest item in the ration on most dairy farms, and also the most variable. Measuring its dry matter regularly and adjusting the loading list to match is the simplest and cheapest way to make sure the cows really eat the ration on paper.",1794234580346]