Preparing your silage pit for ensiling: 6 steps

Good silage starts well before you cover it. What you do before ensiling shows up in the quality of your silage. A pit that hasn't been prepared properly almost always causes problems: torn plastic, air getting in or water running into the silage along the walls.

Hygiene in particular is often underestimated. Anything left in the pit gets ensiled with the crop. Without noticing, you add moulds and bacteria that speed up heating and spoilage. These 6 steps give you a good start.

Why should you prepare your silage pit?

Ensiling is a fermentation process in which you want the right bacteria to take over. If you bring in contamination, unwanted micro-organisms get a head start. Spoilage happens faster and the risk of heating goes up. And once something is in the silage, you can't get it out again.

Good preparation also takes the stress out of the job. You work faster and make fewer mistakes. Preparation is the first step of covering a silage pit: step by step.

How do you prepare your silage pit? 6 steps

1. Clean the silage pit

Old feed residue, leftover plastic and other dirt are a source of moulds and bacteria, and they attract pests. Clear everything away, remove standing water and sweep the floor. Also remove old tyres and litter: steel wires and sharp pieces in the feed can give your cows hardware disease. The pit must be empty, clean and dry before you start.

2. Don't forget the access route

However clean your pit is, if there is slurry, mud or old feed on the access route, the tractors will still carry it into the silage. So clean the route to the pit as well. Contamination with soil and slurry is a well-known cause of butyric acid in silage. Andre Schulte from Denekamp: "Because we no longer use soil, the risk of butyric acid and listeria bacteria is much lower."

3. Mow and trim around the pit

Keep grass and vegetation around the silage pit short. Then you can work neatly when putting the plastic in place and covering, and nothing punctures your plastic. Mow in good time: if you wait too long, hard stubble is left that is extra sharp. It makes holes in the plastic, and through those holes air gets in that leads to heating.

Mowing also helps against pests. Mice and rats like tall vegetation, because they can hide there from predators. The measures against pests at your silage pit help keep them away.

4. Make sure water can drain away

Everyone tries to keep air out of the silage, but water also does a lot of damage. Rainwater is much less acidic than good silage, brings in unwanted micro-organisms and washes out nutrients.

Your pit must be dry when you ensile. But during storage and feeding out, no water should stand in it either. Rainwater and silage effluent must be able to drain away. Check for:

• gullies that are empty and clean;
• drains and outlets that are open;
• no standing water along the walls or on the floor;
• ground around the pit that drains well.

Water problems often start in wet spells, just when you are paying less attention to the pit. A blocked drain or a surface that doesn't slope away properly seems minor, but has big consequences. What rainwater in silage does and how to keep it out is covered in a separate article.

5. Check the walls and floor

Walls and floors wear, crack and get damaged. At the very least, check before every ensiling for:

• cracks in the walls;
• worn sealant joints;
• sharp edges or points;
• subsidence.

If a wall sinks a little or a crack appears, a sharp point can form that damages the plastic. Protect a spot like that for now with an old sheet or something similar.

In a new silage pit, the wall joints are sealed. That sealant wears because of the weather and the acidic juices from the silage. In our experience, water (and air) often leaks in along the walls after one or two seasons. That is why you lay side-wall plastic or silage plastic over the walls: pull it down to the ground and leave a good length lying on the floor. If you work with Silage Safe, leave at least 20 centimetres on the floor. In silage plastic, underlay film and side-wall plastic you can see which film to choose.

6. Have everything ready

Materials scattered around, or that you only start looking for during the job, cause delays and mistakes. Get everything you need ready beforehand: underlay film, silage plastic, covers or a covering system, and sandbags if you use them. Keep the work area tidy. When ensiling and covering, timing is everything, and this makes a big difference.

Thinking about a covering system? Silage Safe fits any silage pit with two walls and room on both sides for the covers and the plastic. You don't need to modify your pit: the covers are held between the pit wall and the silage. All sizes and parts are in the brochure on our product information page.

How clean does a silage pit need to be before ensiling?

As clean as possible: no old feed residue, no old plastic, no standing water and no dirt on the floor. Anything left behind gets ensiled with the crop, including moulds and bacteria. Sweep the floor and also check the corners and along the walls, where remains of the last silage are often still lying.

Which mistakes do you see most often?

1. The pit or the access route isn't clean.
2. There is tall vegetation or dirt around the pit.
3. Mowing is done too late, leaving hard stubble.
4. Drainage is poor or missing.
5. The walls and floor aren't checked.

Preparation, drainage and covering are all connected. However well you cover, if the basics aren't right, the problems remain. Ensiling soon? Then also read the tips for preserving your first cut.