XtraBlatt Issue 02-2017

MENSCHEN INFORMATION
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1 Repeated control is important: In maize silage
all grains must be broken into more than a few
André Hüting also wishes more awareness in the contentious
theme maize grain cracking. “Not only cracking,
but instead at least quartering is required. Still better
is milling.” From his viewpoint, there’s often a problem
here on the part of the farmer monitoring of the harvest
– and with the flexibility of the contractor. “In the past
two years there have been heavy discussions within the
sector over technical solutions for length of chop. However,
it’s not the chopping system that is the decisive
factor but instead the driver that operates it. He must,
according to the instructions from the customer, continually
check the forage quality and adjust the machinery
according to the crop he’s working on. And when the
result is not right, the farmer should have the courage
to immediately stop the harvest operation. It cannot be
that, just through one day’s logistic optimisation, feed
quality is adversely affected for 364 days.”
The argument that the contractor cannot, or will not,
follow these instructions where the farmer seeks only
the cheapest deal and seems unwilling to pay extra for
a little more effort definitely applies, says the vet. But
extra costs for more time and optimum work quality
can be justified in every case. “Let’s take the example
of a 50-ha forage growing area. If the contractor got
30 euros/hour more for his work, that would be an extra
cost of 1500 euros. The feed value on this area would
have a value of certainly 150,000 euros. Good silage
supplies 80% of required ration energy, poor silage
only 50%. What’s the importance of just an extra 1500
euros when the contractor successfully manages to
secure much higher feed quality? The higher milk output
from the forage and, above all, the better animal health
compensates for this many times over. The farmer should
speak to the contractor on this theme very definitely –
or vice versa,” emphasises André Hüting.
pieces.
2 Veterinary surgeon André Hüting is convinced
that most illnesses of beef cattle and dairy cows
can be avoided in the first place when feed quality,
feeding management and husbandry are all
correct.
CONSOLIDATING IS THE
BENCHMARK
A further bone of contention in the subject feed quality
he sees as the consolidating of feed in the clamp. With
grass, the material is, after all, nowadays tipped on the
clamp surface from trailers driving lengthways over it.
“However, the layers of grass spread before consolidation
should never be more than 20 to 30 cm deep. And two
or three vehicles for compacting is always better than
just one. If the consolidating driver is faced with another
load before he has finished rolling, then that’s very bad
planning. If need be, the forage wagon just has to wait.
This is why the consolidating should be the benchmark
for the speed of the entire harvesting chain – not the silage
harvester!”
The situation during clamp filling, incidentally, is
even more important with maize. It is absolutely suboptimum
if the forage transport vehicle tips trailer contents
in front of the clamp and a single consolidating
driver has then to spread the forage material. “For this
reason, it’s also better with maize if the silage wagon drives
lengthways over the clamp distributing the load.” In
this way, loads with varying dry matter content material
are better distributed by the different wagons coming
onto the clamp.
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