Flexible clamp film helps reduce pit spoilage and air pockets

PAT O’CONNELL is a milk producer who farms at Gortnagoul near Milford in North Cork. He and his wife Ita and family run a springcalving dairy herd. They supply their milk to Kerry Co-op.

Last year Pat made approximately 65 acres (between first and second cut) of clamp silage and 210 bales from surplus grass. Pat makes his silage using the forage wagon system and is a customer of the Stokes Brothers contracting team.

One thing Pat noticed is that, because the silage conserved using the forage wagon system is a longer chop length, it can harder to pack.

Pottinger say for its Torro and Jumbo high-capacity silage wagons, the theoretical chopped length of the silage is 34mm.

With this in mind, Pat is careful about how he covers the silage and puts sandbags and tyres on top. The silage is covered by a new silage cover every year and the old cover is used as side sheets.

Last year Pat tried a Visqueen Clingseal silage cover from the local Kerry Co-op store to help reduce spoilage and air pockets. He was happy with the silage quality on opening the pit in winter. Designed for use with a conventional silage sheet, Clingseal is a flexible clamp film that is used directly beneath traditional heavier silage sheeting.

John O’Keeffe from Kerry Agribusiness advises that it is applied to the silage clamp before the application of the uppermost silage sheeting, on top of which you put any additional weights like sandbags or tyres.