Dairy cow intakes and performance on wilted silage treated with or without a silage additive

Extract

Some degree of wilting of grass prior to ensiling is a widespread management technique when weather conditions permit. The intention by using this technique is to both reduce the volume of effluent produced and improve silage quality. The majority of experiments suggest that there is not much benefit to silage analysis if a silage additive is used on grass that has already been wilted. However, in the case of a milking cow that is expected to consume large amounts of silage through the winter period, there could be an improvement in intake if a wilted silage was treated with an additive. The object of this experiment was to see if the use of a reliable silage additive on wilted grass led to a greater silage intake and better performance, by milking cows.