Making high quality silage
It is impossible to produce high quality silage from low quality pasture, no matter how good the fermentation is.
Tyres on maize and silage stacks could get the heave-ho in favour of UK-made Secure Covers, says Secure Cover System (NZ) sales manager Peter Wrightson.
These use knitted textile held down by gravel bags, seen replacing tyres on stacks in England, Europe and America, he says. They are clean, safe and don’t cost the earth.
Tyres – dirty and heavy to handle – also present a risk of wire being eaten by livestock, causing injury to digestive tracts. Sometimes this would be treatable but if wire were to pierce an animal’s stomach wall it would likely need to be put down.
Also, farmers covering maize and silage stacks with soil or limestone can struggle to retrieve feed cleanly especially from top of a stack.
Secure Covers are made of knitted, UV-stabilised polyethylene mesh. The cover is placed over the usual polythene silage sheet and weighed down with 15kg gravel bags.
Wrightson says the system provides an effective seal: the fabric withstands wind, ensuring the cover sheet stays in place over the feed.
The knitted mesh is strong and carries a 10 year guarantee. After use the cover folds up to a bundle about 1m square by 300-400mm thick.
Wrightson recommends using pea gravel to fill the gravel bags, but says farmers can use anything that’s bigger than the pores in the bag.
Feed barn builders DesignMax, Waiuku, sell the covers in Auckland region.
Wrightson says customers grow their usage of the covers year by year. “We get a few more local dairy boys using it every year. They tend to use tyres with the netting in the first year and add more bags and nets in subsequent seasons.”
Tel 0800 30 40 30
Farmer-led charity, Meat the Need is calling for donations to enable it to supply more meals to families in need.
Weaker pricing and demand from China continue to impact New Zealand red meat export earnings.
Fonterra has cemented its position as the country’s number one cheesemaker by picking up nine NZ Champion of Cheese trophies this year.
New Zealand dairy processors are welcoming the Government’s commitment to continuing to push for Canada to honour its trade commitments.
An educational programme, set up by Beef + Land New Zealand, to connect farmers virtually with primary and intermediate school students has reported the successful completion of its second year.
Horticulture NZ chief executive Nadine Tunley will step down in August.
OPINION: The new government has clearly signalled big cuts across the public service.
OPINION: Your canine crusader is not surprised by the recent news that New Zealand plant-based ‘fake meat’ business is in…