Love it or loathe it, silage is now the established form of animal fodder
One of the advantages of the early cutting season was that two crops could be taken each year; one in late May and one in early August. Picture: Pat McCarrick
I remember hearing a story one time about a lad chatting up a girl at a dance. He had a set of questions prepared to establish if there was enough common ground to continue to the next level. One of his questions was, “Hay or silage?”
What, you might well ask, had this got to do with anything? Well, it came from a time when saving fodder for the following winter was a very important part of the farming year. If the girl answered “silage” it meant her people were more progressive and if she answered “hay” it meant she would likely be the more traditional type.
Love it or loath it, silage is now a well-established form of animal fodder. I recall a time before silage, or at least a time when it was new and experimental. The traditional lovers of sweet dry hay hated it but the more progressive and the ambitious kept experimenting until they achieved very acceptable results – for farmer and beast alike.
Few could have predicted the fall-out from silage-making. In the early years, results were good and bad in equal measure. The increase in herd sizes, brought about by Ireland joining the EEC (now the EU), meant that such stock had to be fed. They didn’t just need more fodder, they needed better quality fodder. It was no longer feasible to await the outcome of an unpredictable Ox Mountain summer to see if you had a crop of hay for the following winter. The big win with silage was that, if enough care was taken in the making, you were sure of a quality crop.
If enough care was taken in the making… that was the trick! In its simplest form, silage is a pile of fresh green grass, sealed from the air and allowed to ferment into a high-quality, nutritious fodder. These were the guidelines followed by early silage makers but certain essential elements in this process were often lost in translation.
Where the pile of grass was placed initially was of vital importance. A pile of wet grass gives rise to seepage and such seepage is toxic, especially if it gets into local water courses. And in the early days, this happened with alarming regularity. Spectacular fish kills and the destruction of spring wells that had watered families for centuries were commonplace.
Back in the day, sealing a pit of silage was also a hit-and-miss affair. Air-tight means air-tight and any deviation from this standard means… not air-tight. A silage cover that did not measure up in this respect was often the cause of the whole pile of silage going rotten. This presented two major issues for the farmer: no crop and disposal of such waste. In those early days of silage-making, some good results were attained but, for the most part, the sweet smell of perfect silage was a rare thing in the countryside at that time.
Like all recipes, silage took time to perfect but eventually, with all the lessons learned, silage began to form a standard. Poor quality silage is unheard of these days because too much depends on it, the cost of making it, and the absolute necessity for top-quality winter feed.
The word silo comes from the Greek word 'siros', which means a hole or pit in the ground for storing corn. It is known that the Greeks and Egyptians were familiar with ‘ensiling’ as a technique for storing fodder as far back as 1000 to 1500 BC. In parts of Northern Europe, grass was being ensiled in the early 18th century but it was not until the latter part of the 19th century that it became more widespread.
The first book on silage was published by a French farmer, based on his experiences with green maize. He advised rapid filling of the silo and stressed the importance of keeping it air-tight during storage. A year later, an English translation was published in the USA and American farmers quickly adopted the new technique.
Although the French and American farmers were very enthusiastic, it was not until 1882 that a talk given at the Reading Show of the Royal Agricultural Society stimulated interest in Britain, and to a lesser extent, in Ireland.
The modern silage preserved with acid and by preventing contact with air was invented by Finnish academic and professor of chemistry Artturi Ilmari Virtanen. Virtanen was awarded the 1945 Nobel Prize in chemistry "for his research and inventions in agricultural and nutrition chemistry, especially for his fodder preservation method", practically inventing modern silage.
A paper, , by Lynn M. Johnson and Joe H. Harrison of Washington State University gives a simple version of the science behind silage. The process has certain similarities to wine making so, funnily enough, a fine silage is a bit like a fine wine.
From humble beginnings, about 50 years ago, silage-making increased in popularity. The process became as attractive to small farmers in mountain regions as it did to the huge farmers of the Golden Vale. As machinery got bigger and bigger, small hill fields presented a problem, but not for long. Small gaps were widened for access and hedges and ditches were pulled out to create pastures new… and large.
The cutting season could now begin in May as opposed to late June for traditional hay cutting. The new sounds of summer became the moan of struggling tractors and the scream of forage harvesters. The familiar sounds of summers past, such as the corncrake and the curlew, faded out in a few short years, their nesting grounds, as well as the birds themselves, destroyed. Badly positioned or poorly sealed silage pits often gave rise to effluent leaks resulting in contamination of local water courses and regrettable fish kills. It took years to get the whole process into line and safe to operate.
One of the advantages of the early cutting season was that two crops could be taken each year; one in late May and one in early August. This was a huge boost to farmers who had previously struggled to get one decent crop of hay. On the other hand, this departure encouraged the increased use of fertiliser – both natural and artificial. This impacted on sensitive land that had previously received no more fertiliser than a sprinkling of farmyard manure.
And then came the introduction of the slatted house, where cattle could be wintered indoors. These houses, grant-aided from Europe, didn’t just protect cattle in winter, they also helped to protect the land. Bigger cattle, more cattle, bigger slatted houses, more slatted houses, more silage, better silage, resultant slurry and then more slurry.
The sounds of summer have changed, our climate has changed and yet, we continue to try to make sense of our surroundings as we try to figure out a way to make a living from small family farms. In that regard we have made some progress; silage-making has come a long way, farming practices have come a long way and, as a result, our region has come a long way… but much has been lost along the way.
