Patented index
Precise ensilage
In Italy, our Agroservice has developed an index that can be used to determine the quality of feed even before ensilage. That led to the development of a technical system that delivers financial benefits.
Farmers utilize fermentation in order to preserve corn as animal feed in silos: Lactic acid bacteria lower the pH value in the airtight silo, causing the feed to ferment – if everything goes according to plan. “Incorrect ensilage may mean that the chopped corn loses up to 30 percent of its mass,” explains Daniel Grandis, head of our Agroservice in Italy. That can occur if the corn is still too moist but also too dry at harvest, or if it has too little sugar content as a source of nutrition for the good lactic acid bacteria and bad bacteria gain the upper hand.
An industry selling biological bacterial strains has therefore evolved in the field of silage. KWS now also offers these biological inoculants in Italy and Poland. The feed is sprayed with them during the harvesting process in order to support ensiling later on.
The limit to date is that the amount sprayed is always the same. Daniel Grandis and Maria Chinello, data analyst and inoculant expert at our Agroservice, questioned that: “Why apply a standard quantity of bacteria when the quality of the corn plants may vary from square meter to square meter?”
Thanks to the silage index, ideally prepared feed comes out of the chopper.
Ensilability index
With this in mind, Daniel Grandis and Maria Chinello developed a patented index with the University of Padua. Over a period of four years, corn was harvested at different times, then chopped, after which the constituents were analyzed using wet chemistry procedures and an infrared sensor. After two months of ensilage in plastic bags, another analysis was conducted and the results compared with the initial values. The upshot was the ensilability index: If the characteristics of the starting material are known, conclusions can be drawn as to how it will develop in the silo – and whether additional bacteria are therefore required to support that and, if so, in what quantity.
Only as much inoculant as necessary
And that is where another component of the system comes into play: Modern harvesters are now equipped with infrared sensors. They analyze the corn’s characteristics 32 times a second directly during harvesting. In cooperation with a partner company, KWS has developed a modified spray arm that uses data from the harvester’s on-board software to apply only the amount of inoculant that is actually needed. The objective down the road is even to control different bacterial strains separately or to use satellite data instead of infrared sensors. “We already use satellites to analyze dry matter, and we are trying to predict the same for sugar and fiber in order to estimate insilability values,” says Daniel Grandis. Another goal is to enable the process to be used for other crops that are suitable for ensilage, such as winter cereals.
The system has been introduced to farms in Italy for the past two years; Poland was added this year and other countries are set to follow. Precise ensilage delivers financial benefits for farmers – thanks to less loss in the silo and also because a lower quantity of bacterial strains is required. KWS, in turn, is expanding its own portfolio to include biological inoculants. “We’re becoming even more of a partner to our customers, since our sales teams don’t just sell seed, they sell a service.”
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