MAKING ENSILAGE.

Putaruru Press, Volume IV, Issue 152, 30 September 1926, Page 6

MAKING ENSILAGE.

ITS PURPOSES DESCRIBED. Ensilage may be described as the process of storing succulent fodder in a receptacle for stock in such a manner that it retains its succulence and most of its colour. It consists of storing the forage plant under pressure in a silo stack or pit and regulating the resultant heat so as to prevent rooting or decomposition, tut yet to allow of a certain amount of fermentation. It is this fermentation which causes the odour which is peculiar to silage. The fermentation of plants is mainly due to the .action of micro-organism, and the principle of ensilage is to encourage the action of these micro-organ-isms up to a certain stage, and, when this stage has been reached, to check or destroy them. "When green plants are heaped together fermentation soon begins, and the temperature increases rabidly. This increase of temperature ■causes a very great development in bacterial activity, and fermentation proceeds very rapidly until the temperature goes somewhat above 125 degree® Fab. When a temperature of ( Continued in Next Column.!

about 140 degrees Fall, is reached many of the organisms that have produced the fermentation are destroyed, and hence fermentation proceeds more slowly until a temperature of, -say, 160 degrees is reached, when all the organisms are destroye an spores or sees only remain Fermentation then stopls, and not until the (temperature decreases considerably and air gains access to the fodder can a secondary fermentation begin. Thus the food is preserved.