In the recent years there is a tremendous goat meat demand supply in the world.Commercial farming is one of the business sectors growing every year.However, the feed supply for these animals are not meeting the demand and buying fodder or feeding open market becomes expensive and this is impacting the profits in goat farming. There is a need for home grown green fodder crops to make the feed available all the time and reduce the cost involved in feeding the goats.
Suitable fodder crops for making goat silage
Crops should have good sugar content and required moisture to prepare good feed is utilised in fermentation process to make lactic acid by microorganisms. Cereal green fodder crops like maize (corn), Jowar, Bajra, Hybrid Napier,Sugar cane tops,Oats are most suitable making other Leguminous crops like Berseem, Lucerne are also suitable for silage making. The area for cultivated fodder should depend on the size of the goat farm, usage and storage space. When the fodder is grown and ready it should be harvest and cut at night so as to maintain their moisture level.
The following points should be observed before harvesting green fodder crops intended for silage making.
– One should harvest crops at pre-flowering stage
– Make sure that the crops should not contain more than 75% of moisture while silage making.
– Incase of Maize, Jowar,Bajra, Hybrid Napier, these should be chaffed to an inch size using feed cutting machine to prevent trapping of air and spilage of silage.
– Incase of high moisture fodder crops, dry them in sun for 4 – 6 hours to reduce moisture content to about 15 to 20%
– If the silage is over ripe and over dried, adding water during packing silo is required.
Process of making silage
Choose a safe and dry place for digging a pit. Choose the place on slightly slopping ground and the depth of the pit should decrease from the higher side of the slopping ground to the lower side by giving wedge like shape. Size, shape and dimension of the pit depends on the amount of the forage to be stored. For example, you have to dig the pit size of about 2 cubic meters for making 20 bags of silage. And you will need about 10 meters of polythene and 30 liters of molasses for such a pit.
After making the pit, harvest the greens and cut them to small pieces by using a chaff cutter. Cut the greens into 1 inch piece
Cover the bottom of the pit with polythene sheet for preventing the greens contact with soil. Also cover all the sides of the pit.
Then place the chopped fodder into the pit and spread it into a thin layer and repeat the process until one third of pit is covered.
Dilute 1 liter of molasses with 3 liters of water. And sprinkle the solution evenly on the greens to be preserved. Using a garden sprayer for distributing the solution will be good. Doing this will help for preventing the forage from rotting. Sprinkling the solution throughout the silage pit will help in feeding the micro-organisms, for making the silage ferment quickly and saving the silage from rotting.
Then press the greens with feet or something heavy for making the air out and protecting the greens from fungal attack. Do this very carefully, because very little air can even cause the fungus and damage the forage.
Add more fodder into the pit after pressing and making more room inside the pit. Repeat sprinkling molasses and press again. Do this continuously until the pit is filled in a doom shape.
Cover the top of the pit with polythene sheet after final pressing. Covering the top is important to prevent the silage from any water contact, and if possible dig a small trench around the sides of the pit.
Cover the top with soil, after pressing and covering the top with polythene. Doing this will make the air out and prevent the polythene damage from rain, birds or any other animals.
Leave the pit until there is a shortage of fodder. Because the conservation through fermentation may take some time, even few weeks. But you should wait at least 2 weeks before using. The silage made in such process can be kept for long time, generally up to 2 years.
Using the Silage
Open the pit from the lower side of the slope for using the silage. Then take enough silage fodder for one day and close the pit again. Repeat the process when you need silage for feeding your goats.
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