CHEMICAL-COMPOSITION AND ENERGY VALUE OF BIG BALE SILAGES MADE IN ENGLAND, 1984-1991

Averaged over 8 years, big bale silages made on farms in England had the following composition: dry matter (d.m.) 351 g/kg, pH 5.02, ammonia N 98 g/kg total N, crude protein 112 g/kg d.m., ash 91 g/kg d.m. and calculated metabolisable energy 10.1 MJ/kg toluene d.m. There was significant (p < 0.001) year-to-year variation for each component measured. Silage ammonia N content decreased with d.m. content. The results indicated that a d.m. content of 300 g/kg was needed to produce reliably well preserved silage with less than 100 g ammonia N/kg total N. In addition, favourable weather conditions with little rain and high levels of sunshine were required to achieve this.