Faster wilting makes better pasture silage and have wide swaths

Ideally, you should only consider conserving silage when you have a “true” surplus of feed, i.e. when you have more feed available than the milking herd can consume.

If you can both recognise when this is starting to occur and harvest it early, you have taken the first step to conserving pasture of the best quality.

However, to end up with this same high-quality silage at feed out, you will need to use best practices for all the harvesting and storage steps, from mowing the pasture, to wilting and then to storage.

The longer that mown pasture lays on the ground wilting, the greater the dry matter and quality losses. So, the quicker the wilt, the better the end product.

Five key points to follow for fast wilting times in spring to ensile pasture:

1 Mow as soon as a morning dew has lifted.

Wilting commences immediately after the pasture has been cut.

During spring, ideally mow pasture after the dew has lifted in the morning and obviously when the risk of rain is low.

2 Ensure tractor, mower and rakes are in good working order.

All mowers or mower-conditioners being used must be in good working order and especially with sharp blades as blunt ones cause substantially increased fuel consumption and smashes the grass stubble, which delays its recovery by several days.

3 Wilt pasture to ideal DM range as quick as possible.

Conventional mowers only cut pasture, whereas mower conditioners / super-conditioners involve a process that cuts and either crimps and crushes the cut pasture.

This damages the stems and outer waxy layers (cuticle) of plants, both which encourage moisture to more freely escape from the cut pasture.

Leaves dry faster than stems of a cut forage and therefore, the more stemmy a forage such as lucerne or sorghum, the more likely leaf shatter will occur at raking and baling.

Using a conditioner will speed the rate of moisture loss in the stems, so tending to even up the leaf/stem drying rates.

4 Increase wilting rates by considering the use of mower conditioners/super conditioners and tedders.

Compared to traditional mowers, mower conditioners and super mower conditioners, usually create the fastest wilting times.

However, these mowers, and especially the super mower conditioners, are more expensive to purchase and operate, and require the most kilowatts of power to work.

Additionally, in the event of rain, a mown conditioned swath will reabsorb moisture more rapidly than an unconditioned swath, and may lose more nutrients.

An investment in a tedder or tedder rake may be more beneficial for several reasons.

They can also noticeably increase the wilting rate of an unconditioned swath and are generally cheaper to buy and operate.

Also, early in the season or in the event of rain, a crop can be re-tedded as required.

5 Have wide swaths.

Ideally, the wider the swath, the faster the wilting time, which allows the sun’s rays to better incept a larger surface area of the mown swath. Try to rake into windrows for baling or forage harvesting when the leaves are still durable and so won’t be shattered by being too dry.

Narrow windrows should be avoided, as they prevent fast wilting. If rain is threatening, possibly consider raking into narrow windrows, and re-spreading.