A new development in biological silage treatment

More Energy from the same Silage

Silage is the base for your cows diet in the winter months and so is crucial to economic milk production and healthy cows. The importance of making good silage should be your number one priority each summer.

Management of this involves harvesting at the right time to capture more nutrients from the crop and being confident that your choice of inoculant will enhance this process and allow you to produce nutritious and palatable silage every time which your cows love to eat. Achieving this means your options for balancing the diet are easier. Stability is a huge factor in achieving high intakes...

Optimize Plus Silage Inoculant is a newly formulated blend of the original Optimize with the addition of a new "super enzyme". This enzyme more rapidly separates the bound fibre, making the nutrients within available to rumen bacteria, enabling cows to utilise extra nutrients from the same silage. This leads to more energy and in turn increases the throughput of nutrients into the intestine from the rumen.

By this action, this enzyme can consistently increase M.E. levels by 0.5-1 Mj/Kg. The financial value of 0.5Mj/Kg on a 200 cow herd is £24,000 over a winter season.

Recent testing by the Bioparametrics new and more precise method of silage analysis (measuring fermentable NDF levels of the microbial activity in the rumen) found the specific enzyme formulation of Optimize Plus actively opens up the fibre structure of forage, making nutrients more available for digestion, increasing microbial activity and "fermentable NDF" levels.

Using Optimize Silage inoculant

How Optimize works

Following chopping the grass just before the heading day, Optimize silage inoculant is added at low volume application or a traditional rate of 2lts per tonne freshcrop. This inoculated forage is then added to the clamp where Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus pumilus act to reduce a number of spoilage organisms, some of which produce mycotoxins, and increase the digestibility of the silage.Microbial stimulants are contained within the formulation of Optimize silage inoculant to activate these Bacillus strains since they are supplied in a freeze dried form.

In addition to these Bacillus strains, fibrolytic enzymes are present which degrade complex carbohydrates in plant fibre and tissues. These carbohydrates tend to be the fibre fractions that are relatively indigestible by dairy cows and therefore their action results in improved digestibility of forage fibre.

Optimize contains no Lactobacillus strains in its formulation as this can drive the silage acidity to a pH which inhibits intake by the cow due to high lactic acid levels. The presence of naturally occurring Lactobacillus in the ensiled crop is sufficient to lower the pH from pH 7 to pH 4 at which point the silage is highly stabilised and the Bacillus strains sporulate and in doing so become dormant.

Benefits to cows

Silage treated with Optimize that is fed to the cows contains low levels of lactic acid, spoilage organisms and waste whilst having high plant sugar and effective protein levels thus resulting in higher intakes.

When the silage reaches the rumen, which has a pH of 6.4, the dormant Bacillus spores become activated and produce digestive enzymes which further aid the breakdown of the cows diet. Due to this overall increase in nutrient availability, this leads to increased absorbence in the intestine which subsequently results in better milk production, calf production, fertility and resistance to diseases.

Optimize can be used on all forage types

Due to the microbial content of Optimize, it can be applied to grass, wholecrops and maize either at a low volume or a high volume of 2lts/tonne. Furthermore, this silage inoculant works on the wettest or the driest of crops.

Darren Callen won the All-Wales silage competition in 2006 following use of Optimize silage inoculant on his crops and still produces high quality silage to the present day due to its application.