The Convenient Miracle of Silage Film
Silage film is often seen by people driving by fields that have been recently harvested. Many people assume that the film is just wrapped around the fodder to ensure the weather doesn’t damage it.
But silage film has been specially developed for the purposes it serves, and keeping the rain off the fodder is only one of its purposes.
Creating Better Fodder
Fodder is as old as the Earth. When people started domesticating animals to work for them and serve as their food, they also had to start providing for their needs. Farmers started growing grass crops like timothy, alfalfa, oats, rye, clover, and maize.
Storing this fodder was another chore to be handled. The fodder often had to last the farm animals through a long winter when fresh grass was unavailable. The fodder often had to be carted from the field and stored in a barn or silo. Moving the fodder was labor intensive and also meant that the farm had to create structures to hold the crops.
The creation of plastic sheeting meant that farmers could leave the fodder in the field where it was grown and simply gather the fodder into bales. These bales would then be wrapped in plastic, protecting the fodder from inclement weather. The wrapped bales were easier to transport individually as the fodder was consumed.
Science Provides Better Nutrition
Farmers noticed long ago that the fodder that was stored in a barn or silo would start to heat up soon after it was stored. As farming practices were refined and became more scientific, researchers discovered that the heat generated was the fodder going through a process of anaerobic fermentation. This fermentation process created silage that was more nutritious and easily digestible.
As the manufacturing of plastic became more refined, the type of plastic sheeting used for creating ‘silage’, as fermented fodder came to be known, became more specialized. The amount of light the plastic would admit could be controlled, and the plastic became heavier and more resistant to damage as machines were developed to handle the bales.
It was discovered that how tightly the bales were wrapped also had a bearing on the fermentation process and the amount of spoilage in the silage. The idea was to wrap the bales as tightly as possible to minimize the oxygen in the bale: the less oxygen, the less spoilage.
The fermentation process of tightly wrapped bales causes acid fermentation that brings about the decomposition of the carbohydrates present in the fodder and transforms them into acetic, butyric, and lactic acids, creating what is called sour silage. This silage was found to be superior to regular, unfermented grasses.
Leader in the Farming Industry
MMP Corp is a recognized leader in the manufacture of silage film. The film is designed to be used along with a round hay bale wrapping machine. MMP’s film stands up to the use of machinery and the necessary moving, stacking, and storing of silage bales. Please contact us to learn more about the silage film offered by MMP corp.
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