Principles of Silage Making

Abstract

Owing to the seasonal nature of rainfall in the subtropics, rangeland and planted pasture only supply high quality green forage for a quarter of the year, leaving animals to struggle with poor quality forage for the rest of the year. At a high producing farm, there is need to conserve high quality forage in large quantities and quality, sufficient to last an entire 5-6 months of dry season. Silage provides a means to conserve forage in as near a form to the original forage as possible. Due to its high production costs, it is mostly used on high return enterprises, e.g. dairying.