Creating good silage is difficult. Some simple recommendations are always helpful.

Recommendations

Depending on the method chosen (see section "silage methods") a basic rule is to wither the crop to a DM content of 30-45%.When making forage aimed for horses a dryer, non chopped, high fibre forage is preferred (haylage). Direct cut and harvested maize should be at a DM content of 30-35%.

The graph shows the recommendations of various storage systems. It also shows the breaking-points when the risks of butyric acid bacteria, yeast and mould become obvious.