Dry silage: what are the effects and how do you deal with it?

Dry silage heats up faster, and your cows often eat less of it. The feed value is also likely to be lower. With a few steps at ensiling and feeding out, you can still get the best possible feed from it.

When is silage too dry?

Eurofins Agro calls silage with more than 50% dry matter too dry: it is hard to compact. According to an infographic by Groeikracht, a Dutch silage advisory group, the ideal crop for compacting has between 35 and 45% dry matter. Not sure? Have a silage analysis done.

Why is dry silage a problem?

A dry crop doesn't compact as well, so the silage is less dense. More oxygen stays in the feed. That means it takes longer for fermentation to start.

If the crop is also stemmy, it probably contains less sugar. Its woodier structure also makes it harder for the bacteria to reach the sugars. That slows down fermentation too. How fermentation works and which pH suits your dry matter is explained in silage pH and fermentation.

Why does dry silage heat up faster?

Dry silage is looser, so it holds more air. After opening, oxygen also gets further into the pit from the silage face. Yeasts then become active sooner. On top of that, dry silage forms fewer acids, which also makes it more sensitive to heating (Eurofins Agro). What you can do about heating is covered in preventing silage heating.

How do you deal with dry silage? 4 tips

1. Have it chopped. A crop with less structure is more even and easier to compact. The bacteria can also convert the sugars into acids more easily. Put the driest or stemmiest loads in first: at the bottom, the rest of the silage presses them down. More tips: silage compaction tips.
2. Cover quickly. Once you have rolled the last layer, cover the pit as soon as possible. This stops the crop from heating up further and gets fermentation going as quickly as possible.
3. Make sure the cover is airtight. After covering, check regularly for holes or tears in the plastic, for example from pests. See how Silage Safe keeps the pit tight and airtight on our product information page.
4. Raise your feed-out rate. In less compacted silage, oxygen gets further in through the silage face. The faster you feed out, the less time heating has. Work out your feed-out rate as shown in silage feed-out rate.

Drought often starts in the field. What you can do then is explained in drought on grassland.