← Forage and pasture H15-05 · Module 5 of 7 · Pages: 18 · Worksheets: 6

Silage and haylage on a small farm

When silage or haylage pays on a small farm, how to make it in bales, bags and barrels, judge it when you open it, and avoid listeria and botulism

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Silage and haylage on a small farm

In short

  • Silage keeps without air. Every hole in the wrap or loosely tied bag means mould.
  • Haylage: grass wilted to 40–60 % dry matter, baled tight and wrapped in 4–6 layers of film the same day.
  • No soil in the forage: cut at 7–8 cm, spread molehills, never put poultry litter on a meadow for silage.
  • Mouldy, warm, slimy or foul-smelling forage doesn't go in the trough. A carcass in a bale means the whole bale goes to waste.
  • Goats and sheep get only perfect silage and always with hay; horses only on a vet's advice.
  • For 2–5 goats or sheep a big bale is too big: it spoils before they eat it.

What's inside

Chapters

  1. Silage, haylage and hay
  2. When it pays on a small farm
  3. Clean forage: the first rule
  4. Haylage in bales
  5. Silage in bags and barrels
  6. Judging it when you open it
  7. Listeria and botulism
  8. Feeding silage
  9. Common mistakes
  10. Printable checklist

Worksheets

  • Silage and package calculator
  • Bale and bag log
  • Silage assessment at opening
  • Labels for bales and bags
  • Silage and haylage cost sheet
  • Silage and haylage calendar

Fields and checkboxes can be filled in with Adobe Acrobat Reader (desktop and mobile), and the calculator adds up by itself. Filling in may not work in some browsers. A print version comes with the screen PDF.

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