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East Central Minnesota | I have been putting up corn silage for 5-6 years and up until last year I always covered it with plastic and tires. I always hated shoveling snow off the pile, then throwing tires off, then cutting off a section of plastic and having to deal with that. Last year I tried putting oats on top but they didn't germinate so that didn't work. But I really didn't see much more spoilage and the cows (beef) at everything just as before.
My question is probably a dumb one but I don't really understand where the loss is. I understand that nutritionally it won't be near as good on top and that it will lose weight but... Isn't the weight lost just moisture? Will the dry matter weight still be the same? If the cows are getting all their nutritional needs met through the good silage and hay, and they clean the bunk out everyday, what am I really gaining by covering? What am I really losing by not covering?
I know all the studies that talk about the waste of not covering, I'm just not exactly sure what form of waste I had last year. Is it wasted feed if they eat it? Is it a lost amount of feed if the dry matter is still there?
I am really debating on whether or not I should bother covering the bunker this year or not.
I'm hoping among all the follow-up posts saying how dumb and lazy I am someone will be able to help me understand. ;-) | |
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Covering Bunker Silo - Follow up?
