Molasses is often used to make silage with ingredients such as corn, cassava chips, green grass, etc., to store food for cattle during cold seasons.Molasses
The nature of molting:
Corn-grass silage is the anaerobic fermentation process in the bag or silage when sufficient moisture is available. Maintaining a major role in maize incubation, the grass is the lactic fermenting bacteria available in green grass and molasses. The following main processes occur during the tempering process: Anaerobic activity and aerobic activity.
Anaerobic activity:
When all of the oxygen remaining in the silage was eliminated at the upper stage, the anaerobic bacteria began to function and multiply rapidly. At the same time, yeast and mold die off. Some plant enzymes are still active. The following biochemical changes will occur:
Sugar is converted to lactic acid, acetic acid, alcohol, and CO2.
The protein is hydrolyzed to Peptic, NH4 +, Amino acid, Amine, Amide.
When the acidity reaches a certain value, the bacteria die, the enzyme stops functioning and the silage is stable. This value depends on its initial dry matter.
Aerobic activity:
The maize cells, the grass continues to breathe, consume the remaining oxygen in the bag, brew the compost to produce carbon dioxide and water, accompanied by heat emission. At the same time, yeast and mold continue to grow. If the correct technique of this stage is short, the temperature will not rise to over 38oC. If the grass in the compost is slow, the grass does not tightly, so that the air enters, this period lasts, great losses and excess heat generate heat and damage the grass.
Factors affecting the quality of maize and grass silage:
The chemical composition of maize, the grass is associated with the tempering of the product.
The quality of maize, silage depends on the nature of the raw material, namely dry matter, sugar content.
Supplemented sugar easily fermented specifically molasses, bran … some other by-products.
If there are grass-wilting conditions, humidity is about 70%, with molasses added 2-4% (depending on the raw material with more or less sugar).
Do not brew grass directly in fresh form, except for corn, sorghum.
If the grass is cut in bad weather, use straw, bagasse to get into the cellar to attract grass, the amount of honey must be guaranteed.
In addition, add salt to prevent silage too. In addition, salt and sugar increase the osmotic pressure, reducing the loss of dry matter.
The maize cells, the grass cells continue to breathe, consume the remaining oxygen in the bagged compost, the composting tunnel produces CO and water, accompanied by heat emission. At the same time, yeast and mold continue to grow. If the correct technique of this stage is short, the temperature will not rise to over 38oC. If the grass in the compost is slow, the grass does not tightly, so that the air enters, this period lasts, great losses and excess heat generate heat and damage the grass.
Quality evaluation of silage
Sensory evaluation
The smell of acid pleasant, if the smell is difficult to smell is the grass must be removed.
Not bitter and not sour.
No mold.
Moisture and color: uniform. When the grass is too moist it will be dark, viscous, unpleasant smell. Normally, the green color of the pickled cucumber is the most suitable color.
The leaves are silage without losses. Smooth bark seems to be much more fibrous than leaves.
How to check the humidity of grass before incubation without sending samples to the laboratory:
Cut the fins in the palm of the hand for 30 seconds, then slowly release, commenting the grass in the palm will infer moisture:
If the grass fluid flows easily through the fingers: Moisture 75-85% is not suitable for incubation.
Grasping kept the shape, wet hands, moisture from 68-75%. When silage is still present, but with molasses supplement of 2-4%, the quality of silage is high.
Grass will open at the open hand: moisture level lower than 60%. If the grass is very young, it can be composted with good moisture content, whereas the grass will easily become moldy. Treatment of this case is mixed with wet grass or mixed with water.
How to use molasses in maize silage
Harvesting maize for silage:
The ideal time to cut silage is when 50% of the corn in the field is seeded to maturity. Therefore, the timing of maize for silage is determined depending on the number of nutrients present in whole maize.
When harvesting corn for silage, it is necessary to harvest all the corn, not to separate it. Because the grain contains sugar, it facilitates the fermentation process. If only corn silage is produced, it will not produce good quality silage.
Lactic fermentation:
In tropical plant species, sugars are often not enough to produce enough lactic acid to sour the entire mass of feed. Therefore, sugar should be added to facilitate lactic fermentation. For corn needs to add 10 liters of molasses, 5kg of salt for 1 ton of feed.
Maize silage technique:
After cutting the maize to the ground or yard, sun drying for about half a day, causing the plant to dehydrate and dry slightly. This is a favorable factor for successful silage. But do not expose it to too dry before it is diced and put it in the bag hole. At the time of drying, every 2 hours it should be turned once so that the plants will wither. Otherwise, the top layer is dry but the bottom layer is still green.
The next step is to shred the corn into pieces of 3-5 cm. They are then pumped into the hole and compressed tightly.
In the case of farm-scale beef production and the use of double-walled compost, a layer of straw or hay should be spread to the bottom of the pits, and then the pile of feed is minced throughout the pits at a thickness of 40 -60 cm.
Feed each feed into the pit, using a tractor or truck to compress the feed by running the truck from one end to the other, parallel to the two bulkheads of the pit. And do so until the end of feed.
Close composting:
The composting technique also varies according to the type of pit. In the case of large compartments, two parallel walls, after carefully compressing the top layer of food, using a thick canvas or thick plastic sheet covering the entire pit. Finally, use heavy loads (old tires, wood …) to tighten up.
For a small composting plant, after the whole feed was compacted to the pit mouth, the compost was closed by covering a layer of straw (5 cm in thickness) on top of the pit, then pouring a layer of soil thick (minimum 30 cm) upwards and cover the entire surface of the compost. This soil layer prevents air and rain from penetrating into the composting chamber and helps to provide better food compression. Cover the compost with nylon, steel or fibrous cement to prevent rainwater.
About 72 hours after the composting, the fermentation stops. Corn feed converted to silage. It began a period of stability, lasting about 6-7 weeks. This fermented feed can be fed to livestock starting at week 8.
In grass silage, basically the same technique applies to maize, but when taking steps one should pay attention to the following issues:
Applying silage to individual grasses or composting a variety of grasses together: natural grass, elephant grass, grass litter … should cut the grass before the flowering. Do not cut the grass too young, because it contains more water, difficult to incubate. Do not wait too old grass. For grass, such as elephant grass, should be cut at age 40-45 days.
Thai grass is about 3-4 cm long. When the grass is dry, it should be chopped, because it is easy to compress and easy to ferment.
After chopping, exposing the grass to a moisture content of 65-70% (the most suitable moisture), the new cut grass usually has high humidity (75-85%), especially grasses.
Molasses supplementation: Depending on the amount of grass molasses. Normally, with 1 ton of grass, 10 liters of molasses, 5 kg of salt for high-sugar grass such as elephant grass. 5 liters of molasses, 5 kg of salt for low-sugar grass.