Silage is one of the ways to preserve green plants. Silage is a succulent feed and is a valuable food product for herbivores, which improves their digestion.
Instructions
Step 1
Silage is prepared from finely chopped succulent herbaceous plants by fermentation without air access. For this, green stems of sunflower, corn, Jerusalem artichoke, non-poisonous weeds, tops and small fruits of vegetable crops are suitable. A good product is obtained by mixing different types of green food. Nettle, clover, alfalfa should be added to cabbage, beetroot, carrot leaves. It is advisable to slightly dry up juicy crops before ensiling, this will reduce acidification of the product. When preparing a full-fledged juicy forage, the timing of harvesting crops for silage is important. Harvest cereal plants in the stage of waxy ripeness of grain, grasses in the heading phase.
Step 2
Prepare containers for silage: wooden boxes or plastic barrels; brick-lined, cemented or simply covered with thick plastic wrap pits 1-2 meters deep. Cover the bottom of the silo with straw. Finely chop the silage mass, the size of the cutting particles is 30-50 mm, lay in layers in the container. Sprinkle each layer with salt in an amount of 2-3% of the green mass, fill with sour milk (1-3 liters per 1 ton of mass), you can add molasses (if you are ensiling plants with a low sugar content), compact well. You can prepare cutting in the trough by chopping up the grass with a sharp bayonet shovel or a special cleaver. A more modern way is to use household feed grinders.
Step 3
When the storage is filled completely, at 0.5-0.7 m above the ground, close it hermetically so that no air enters the neo. Cover the cutting with a film, roofing felt, fill the holes with a layer of earth 10 cm. Pay special attention to the edges, make a layer of earth around the perimeter 15-20 cm. In winter, insulate them with straw from freezing. Close barrels, boxes with lids, you can coat them with clay for reliability. Store at 1-3 ° C. The better the mass is rammed and the more carefully the storage is sealed, the better the finished product will be.
