While spring seems a long way off, one must realize that once the freezing temperatures are gone, spoilage could be a risk, especially for those wet feeds and silages if they did not ensile properly.

One of the problems we had last fall was related to the less-than-ideal storage conditions for corn silage. While producers had little choice but to make feed before the snow began flying, we knew at that time Mother Nature’s giant refrigerator would cool and keep our wet feeds protected from the advent of spoilage until spring. By that time, if the frozen-green-chopped forages had not gone through proper fermentation, the rate of spoilage could become a huge problem with the arrival of warmer weather.

Granted, warm days are likely far off, so now is the time to estimate your carry-over feed and adjust your rate of feed-out if spoilage is going to be a problem. The faster silage is fed off the face of a bunker or pile, the less time it’s exposed to oxygen and subject to spoilage. Forage specialists generally suggest a storage design that allows for a feed-out rate of one foot per day.

W hat a lot of people don’t

understand is that oxygen can penetrate quite a ways into a feed-out face. In some instances, the hot zone was as far back as three feet. This is important for first-time silage makers, particularly those who decided to ensile corn. This unfamiliarity could result in substantial losses this year.

Producers may not know that this zone of heating is causing dry-matter losses because it’s out of sight. The feed-out face actually might be cool to the touch because the readily available carbohydrates already decomposed days ago and it has had a chance to cool.

Brian Holmes, a University of Wisconsin agricultural engineer, notes that some feeders do realize the losses are occurring but come up with the wrong solutions.

“You’ll see where people are tunnelling down through their silage,” Holmes says. “They have come to realize that a small distance fed out each day results in always feeding spoiled feed. So they will increase their feed-out rate by tunnelling down through the silage.”

Slow feed-out rates or tunnelling to avoid the problem suggests that the storage was made too wide in the first place.

“They’re feeding out at a much higher rate because they get better feed quality while they are feeding,” Holmes says. “In the meantime, everything else that’s exposed is deteriorating in much the same way as an uncovered storage pile.”

His solution is to feed at a faster rate across the entire face of the forage. Let’s say the zone of heating is in the two-to three-foot range. If you feed out at the rate of one foot per day, the heating can happen for only up to three days before you actually get to that point and feed it out. If you’re feeding at six inches a day, you have up to six days for the decomposition to occur.

The best solution is to design bunkers and piles for a one-foot-per-day feed-out rate. That may mean adding bunker walls or building more and smaller piles. Reducing the size of the pile or bunker face ensures fast enough feed-out and that the remaining silage stays under plastic and is protected from air, Holmes says.

Granted, you are not going to build bunkers this time of the year. Nonetheless, for the future, seek bunker and pile-sizing assistance, such as the spreadsheets available from extension at http://www.extension.org/pages/Silage_Management_Considerat ions and the University of Wisconsin forage team at http://www.uwex.edu/CES/crops/teamforage/.

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But not only moisture will chal lenge the storage and receiving of grain; substantial mould proliferation has farmers and elevator managers alike very concerned.

Because of this year’s harvest conditions, many producers are looking for either temporary storage (for later drying) or additional storage to accommodate wet corn (for feeding) because they do not want to plug a huge bin with wet corn. As a result, two very common questions have arisen: “Can I put it in the bag?” and, “How long will it keep?”

Using the long white storage or silo bags is a very viable alternative for short-term storage. We have used them for years to store wet forage, and farmers have adapted them for various other commodity feeds, wet and dry. Besides, you can put the bags just about anywhere.

Today, dealing with wet shelled corn, the biggest advantage may be the bags’ size. In an era of gigantic bins, you do not want the risk of adding wet grain. Moreover, while drying sounds like a logical answer, dryer capacity and availability of fuel have a “choke hold” on the harvest of our crops. Therefore, producers are looking for temporary storage options.

The silo bag makes sense. However, storage recommendations are for crops at the appropriate moisture.

So if you are going to harvest wet corn and you are going to store it wet, how long can you store it? That is where our colder winter temperatures may be an advantage. Compared with bins or large piles, the bag is of small diameter (nine to 12 feet). Once in the bag, wet corn will be refrigerated more quickly by our winter temperatures. Once cooled, this natural refrigeration will slow spoilage.

I have seen examples of producers using bags for storage of 24 per cent corn last year, and that worked fine. However, this year, where moistures exceed 32 per cent, that could be a problem. In general, corn stored in oxygen-limiting silos, such as the bag, should have an ideal crop moisture at 28 per cent to 32 per cent, with a minimum of 24 per cent and a maximum of 35 per cent.

High-moisture corn above 32 per cent kernel moisture may result in difficulty in unloading from more typical silos. The bag is better suited to handle the corn.

For corn above 40 per cent moisture, no storage device will offset an undesirable fermentation that will take place and yeast that will predominate, along with high ethanol levels, resulting in poor animal acceptance. Nor will any storage device hold a product to extend a producer’s marketing strategy.

If high-moisture corn is stored in bags, locate bags away from trees and long grass, and keep snow removed from around the bags. For best results, remove bagged high-moisture corn during cooler months. Punctures, rips or tears in the summer can cause rapid and expensive spoilage.

The best advice may be to use common sense. We do not know what “normal” corn growing, harvesting and storage conditions are anymore. Unfortunately, little research has been done in this area in recent years because this is applied research for which little, if any, financial support is available. So monitor those bags weekly and carry some tape to repair all tears. Once critters find and tear the bag, spoilage will accelerate and losses due to spoilage will be magnified immensely.

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