Having made the decision to move his silage storage from a clamp to baling, Cezary Chludziński hasn’t looked back since he saw an uplift in milk yield and cow performance.
Mr Chludziński and his wife farm alongside his parents in Włodki, a village in Podlaskie Voivodeship near Piątnica, Poland, together, they run a 100-head dairy herd and were eager to explore how they could improve herd performance through their silage.
After having issues with clamp silage losses due to aerobic spoilage, from inefficient sealing and uneven compaction, Mr Chludziński decided to investigate an alternative method to ensile his grass.
Baling the silage seemed to be an effective solution, but he says the real turning point was when he made the transition from using net wrap to a net replacement film.
He says: “I purchased a McHale Fusion 4 Plus, a combination baler with the technology to wrap my bales with Baletite - Silotite’s solution for the film and film concept, paired with SilotitePro 2000 balewrap.
“Baling our silage allowed us to be more particular about the cuts we were taking. It alleviated the pressure to cut everything at once and get it in the clamp, which meant we could work on a field-by-field basis.”
Mr Chludziński says that an additional benefit of bringing the operation in-house, they were not reliant on a contractor to be free when they knew their grass was ready.
“This was especially useful during unpredictable weather conditions, which meant we were harvesting the grass at its optimal nutritional value, rather than sacrificing nutrition for convenience.”
Increased herd performance
By wrapping with Baletite, silage quality was captured and maintained throughout the winter housing period and for much longer than with net wrap.
He says: “It was clear at feed out that the silage quality was consistent for months; the evidence was in how eagerly the cows ate the feed.
“As a result, we saw an uplift in milk production, which justifies the small increase in cost of using a net replacement film compared to using net.”
If a cow eats mouldy silage, it will usually result in cases of mastitis and an increase in somatic cell count in the milk. For the farmer, this can mean a costly veterinary bill and unsellable milk for ten days.
"Once we started making silage exclusively in bales again, the somatic cell counts per millilitre of milk reached 100,000 – an impressive result, and touch wood, the inflammation problems have ended.”
Labour efficiency
Since adopting Baletite, the farm has also increased labour efficiency at feed out. The bales can be cleanly sliced and opened from the tractor cab, using an automatic bale slice– simplifying and speeding up the process.
“The system grabs, cuts and removes the plastic from the bale, all from the driver’s seat,” he says.
“The Baletite peels away from the bale smoothly, whereas net often gets caught in the silage.
“SilotitePro 2000 and Baletite arrive on the farm in sleeve packaging rather than cardboard. I can put it in my pocket rather than hauling a big cardboard box around from field to field.
“For us, we’ve seen the full range of advantages that Baletite promises, we will continue using it to maximise our silage quality for our dairy business,” concludes Mr Chludziński.
