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Today I have three things to cover:
- Eddie Mello
- Drafty silage piles and a great video
- Lallemand Silage Safety Booklets in English and Spanish
EDDIE MELLO – 209-261-2829 –
We welcome Eddie as an associate in the north part of the valley. He has added Silostop to his lines and is available as a source of product and information. We know him to be a hard working customer service kind of a guy and he comes to us highly recommended. If you live in the north valley, give him a call. Joe Martin, who worked with us through last season, is happily managing a ranch and vinyard and we wish him well as he takes on those new challenges!
DRAFTY SI
LAGE PILES
Ever sleep in a drafty room with not quite enough blanket? That will certainly spoil a restful sleep.
It’s the same with silage. You carefully calculated space needed for your drive over pile, figured pack tractor needs and fill rates, you spent the money on inoculant and Silostop covering (and you made sure it was the real thing). You hired all the right people. Now, manage that face and that expensive feed face by using gravel bags to keep the plastic closest to the face down. You would be surprised how much damage a little air can do, and how quickly it will spoil that resting silage.
Here is a video of Ron and our friend Stan Marks diagnosing an air problem on an otherwise perfect, very large silage pile. Note how far and wide the problem area spreads from the hole. Notice too the great job this dairy is doing with managing the face: not a lot of uncovered silage, a nice flat face, and they use gravel bags to keep that plastic in place. This makes a huge difference, believe it or not.
The gravel bags are about 3.3 feet long and come unfilled. You fill them yourself with pea gravel and they end up weighing about 45 pounds. For the purpose of weighing down the plastic near the face, you just move the row back as you remove plastic. They won’t slide on a drive over pile (Yet another reason to make drive over piles). Use this tip to protect that silage you so painstakingly planned for!
When it comes to the next harvest, consider tossing the tires and using gravel bags to cover your pile. First, place a solid row of gravelbags along all outside edges and any joins. Then put rows of gravelbags approximately 14-20 feet apart. When using gravelbags, tires can be eliminated altogether. The gravelbags can be placed on top of the protective cover, but must be in a position where they also seal the film. Remember: it is the Silostop film that must be sealed to exclude oxygen.
LALLEMAND SILAGE SAFETY MANUALS NOW IN SPANISH –
I worked for three years as a safety compliance officer for a ranch on the west side. I know all about trying to find applicable safety meeting information. We are pleased to be able to take care of one month’s tailgate safety meeting with this new English and Spanish version of the excellent piece Dr. Keith and Ruth Bolsen authored. If you or anyone you know would like copies of this please send me a message at connie@connormarketing.com. I would be happy to send them. The Bolsens are crusaders in silage safety, and this manual is excellent for an employee meeting. Like all other training, the easy part is informing. The hard part is enforcing the safety standards employees must follow, and constantly reminding them how precious their life is, and how quickly it can be taken from them and their families who depend on them. Ask Doug DeGroff about that. http://hayandforage.com/ecorn-archive/0111-nutritionist-survives-silage-pile-collapse/index.html
SAFETY! Yet another reason to make drive over piles.
That said, have a safe and wonderful weekend with your family!
Connor Marketing, Inc. 