Silage

Silage production is a very important contribution of NDP, SEP dairy projects. Although the people of Potazia village produce Napier, Jambu grass and rear cows, they never produce silage. The Milkvita and Animal Resources Office has failed to produce silage in their 30 years of operation. After the coming of SEP dairy project, the farmers, especially the environment club, met at different times and finally, with them Shahid, Saidul, Morshed, Haji Malek of Potazia village, Bhutra silage was made for the first time on 51 bigha land. Upazila and District Directorate of Animal Resources welcomed this activity of SEP and they also saw Bhutra field and silage production process on the ground. 400 mt of silage they will feed their cows next monsoon. It will take less than 30% of the amount of grain food.

Benefits of silage:

• Silage contains 85% of nutrients.
• It eliminates wastage of the less favoured parts of the fresh fodder like stem because the animal consumes the entire plant.
• The organic acid produced in the silage is similar to those normally produced in the digestive tract of ruminants so the digestibility of fodder increases.
• It is difficult to store raw grass in the rainy season but silage can be easily stored.
• Silage is highly palatable.
• It is a source of nutrients and vitamins.

The procedure of silage making:

• Construct a surface/trench silo (silage storage structure)
• Harvest the crop at 30-35% dry matter (DM) stage.
• Chop the fodder into small pieces of 2-3 cm size.
• Fill the chopped fodder into the silo
• Press the chopped fodder in the silo layer by layer
• Filling and pressing should be completed as fast as possible.
• Use additives during the filling of fodder in the silo, if required.
• After filling and pressing seal the silo with a thick polyethylene sheet.
• Put weight through mud layer/sandbags/tires on the sheet to prevent airflow beneath the sheet.
• Open the silo for feeding, minimum after 45 days, as per need