GRASS SILAGE 5 



Excellent silage was made at this station in 1943 by the addition of 150 pounds 

 of ground wheat per ton of green crop, and in 1944 by addition of a similar 

 amount of so-called "corn meal blend." This latter material, although con- 

 sisting mostly of corn meal, contained some ground oats and ground barley. 

 Silage made in this way has been exceptionally palatable to cows and has the 

 further advantage of being relatively easy to make. The correct amount of grain 

 for a load is weighed out and is slowly poured into the blower through one of the 

 rows of air holes in the hood, as chopping proceeds. The operation is facilitated 

 by bolting to the blower hood a homemade chute made from galvanized sheet 

 metal and strap iron. 



The apparent disadvantage of this method is the cost of the grain, but it should 

 be borne in mind that most of the feed value of the grain is conserved, so that the 

 actual cost for preservation is probabh- not any higher than for other common 

 preservatives. One group of farmers when told about this method, expressed 

 themselves in this way, "We have to buy the grain anyway; if there isn't much 

 loss in the silo why not make it serve the double purpose of preservative and feed." 

 Under present conditions regarding feed supply in the Northeast (February, 

 1945) it would be unwise to recommend this use for grain, but when grain is 

 available in normal amounts the method is well worth a trial. 



Other materials which we have given a trial as preservatives are lactic acid 

 cultures, salt, a combination of these, and urea. As the name perhaps implies, 

 lactic acid cultures are suspensions in suitable media of large numbers of certain 

 types of bacteria, which ferment carbohydrate with the production of lactic 

 acid. The particular species of organism used in our trials was Bacillus bulgaricus. 

 The theory on which use of such cultures is based is that inoculation of silage 

 with them will result more certainly in a typical lactic acid fermentation, which 

 is the kind desired in silage, than if the mass is left uninoculated and nature is 

 allowed to take its course. 



Such cultures, used alone and in combination with salt, were investigated over 

 a period of two years, with disappointing results. In many respects they were 

 worse than no preservative at all for they encouraged the formation of butyric 

 acid and other malodorous substances, and inhibited the development of lactic 

 acid which they were supposed, in theory, to increase. It is felt that the inocula- 

 tion theory' breaks down for two reasons: (1) sufficient numbers of lactic acid- 

 producing bacteria are present naturally, and (2) most grasses and legumes in 

 the unwilted state do not contain sufficient fermentable carbohydrate for this 

 type of bacteria to work on, regardless of whether they are present naturally or 

 are introduced by inoculation. Furthermore, in many cases where success has 

 been reported in the use of cultures, conditions were probably such that a fair 

 to good product would have been obtained anyway, regardless of the inoculation. 



Results with salt alone were equally poor. Aside from a favorable effect on 

 palatability salt has little to recommend it as a silage preservative. Salt may 

 keep damp hay from spoiling, but its effect in this respect is not operative in 

 material as moist as silage. There is also the risk of too high a salt intake by 

 animals fed silage to which salt has been added indiscriminately, as apparently 

 was the case with one lot of silage examined in the course of this investigation. 

 A sample from this lot contained seven times the maximum amount of salt 

 recommended as adequate for milking cows. This was an exceptional case, but 

 several other samples analyzed contained amounts of salt considerabh' above the 

 recommended maximum. 



