Silage Harvest with a Self-loading Wagon on Dairy Farms

A large, 7-t capacity, self-loading wagon (SLW) was used to chop forage coarsely, between 60 and 100 mm, to transport material to the storage site and to form three stack silos: one with formic acid, one with mechanical packing and one without either acid or packing. A fourth stack silo (control) contained finely chopped forage with an average length of cut of 11 mm, conserved without packing or acid. Better conservation was observed in finely chopped silage, but adequate conservation of coarsely chopped forage was achieved with packing. There was no significant difference in milk production between the four silages fed in a 58% forage-42% supplement ration. Compared to a forage harvester, the SLW system can be faster for short field-to-silo distances. In addition, the SLW system reduces labor, tractors and wagons needed for transport of forage from the field to the storage site.