Greetings, can any of you fine Countrysider's tell me about making silage in a hot clim? I have a small farm in the Philippines 9 degrees off the equator with access to a lot of free threshing waste from a local rice producer. Can this be made into silage? My wife, her family, and I raise cattle and swine there. As we all know hot/warm weather is not great for grass production. This could be one of those tricks to give me the edge. Any help from producers in the deep south with some little hot weather trick tips? If any of you get to Cagayan De Oro City, Mindanao look me up, just ask about the crazy 'Cano who lives like the locals. Mabuhay ya'll, Steve

-- steve w. (stevew101@hotmail.com), November 21, 2001

Answers

I wouldn't think so. By the time grain is ripe, all the nutrition from the plant has gone into the grain, and whatever is left is just structural material, with about the same chemical constitution as wood. Rice is even worse - rice (straw or hulls) is VERY rich in silica (read sand or glass). Makes rice straw the ideal material for straw-bale homes (and probably as good as you can get for thatch too). However, not ideal as food.

As for warm weather and grass, grass grows tremendously in warm weather - given enough water. Ask anyone with a lawn. If you can't get other grasses, you could try sorghum (but beware cyanide poisoning); or sugar cane. Chopped, either will make good silage. If anyone grows sugar cane around where you are, and doesn't burn before harvesting, then the trimmings would make marvellous cattle feed. There are also tropical legumes.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), November 22, 2001.

What exactly is silage and how is it made?

-- BF Morris (chelone@cci-29palms.com), November 22, 2001.

Silage is basically pickled feed, usually made from corn and corn stalks. You take the wet feed, pack it down, and let it ferment. It smells rather strongly of vinegar ( I have often thought) and cattle seem to enjoy it.

-- terri (hooperterri@prodigy.net), November 22, 2001.