3 simple ways in which farmers can analyse silage quality visually at the pit face

As farmers make their way through pits of silage up and down the country, it might be no harm to take a few minutes and analyse the quality of the feed you are giving your cattle/sheep.

To help you do this, Pat Moylan of Teagasc offered some tips on how you can analyse the quality of your silage visually this winter.

Pat had two silage samples in front of him, one consisted of good-quality silage, while the second one was of poorer-quality.

Here’s what he had to say: “In order to determine what quality of silage you have lying in the yard, we need to focus in on three points.”

Colour and smell

In terms of the colour and smell of the feed, Pat said it can be fairly straightforward to determine what is good and what is bad.

He explained: “Colour and smell is the first parameter that you can do easily. In terms of good-quality silage, if it is a nice yellow/green colour, then it is a good sign of good preservation.

When you smell it, you should get a nice, sweet perfume smell which indicates excellent preservation.

“In contrast, poor-quality silage, it will have a much darker, brown colour and when you smell it, you should get a more damp, vinegar-like smell from it – which indicates poor preservation.”

Dry matter

Pat went on to explain how to test the dry matter percentage of your silage.

He added: “To test the dry matter percentage of your silage, all you do is take a sample of silage and with increasing pressure between your fists, squeeze the silage and note any moisture. When there is no moisture coming off the sample it’s an indication of good-quality silage.

“In contrast, poor-quality silage, when squeezed with the same increasing pressure, the water will run freely from it.”

DMD

Finally, moving onto the DMD off the silage, Pat said you should ask yourself a couple of questions first, such as when was the silage cut and how recently was that field reseeded where the silage came from. This will help to give you an indication of the typical DMD you would expect.

He said: “On visual examination from the pit face, you are looking for the proportion of leaf and stem. If you are looking at your silage and roughly calculate the leaf-to-stem ratio to be 70:30, then you could say that the silage has a DMD of roughly 70-72%.

“Again, in contrast, poor-quality silage, if it feels prickly then it will indicate that there is a lot of stem present. If the ratio of leaf-to-stem is 60:40, then you could say that the DMD of that particular silage is roughly 60-62%.”