Farmdesk logo
Share this article on LinkedIn

Adding mixing silage in Farmdesk

Daya Will

Mixed silage, also known as "lasagna silage," is commonly used in practice. Think of a silage with grass, corn and pulp, for example. It is not only a practical solution for storing roughage, but also offers the possibility of offering the same ration to livestock over a longer period of time.

If mixed silage is present on the farm, it may be interesting to create it as cereal feed mix in Farmdesk. Via this way it is possible to:

  • To enter the effective percentage of each component individually
  • To have an accurate estimation of the feed value
  • Fill out the loading list more accurately

Getting started in Farmdesk

You can add a new feed mix via "My feeds" > "+Feed mix" > "Feed mix."

One difficulty with mixed silage is to estimate the relative share (in kilograms of product or dry matter) of the various components. What is easy to determine, however, is the height of the various layers. Therefore, in Farmdesk (as soon as one or more roughages are present in the mix), a calculator appears next to "Share".

The height (in cm) should be entered:

In addition, the density of different feeds is shown. This is based on figures from the Dairy Farming Handbook of Wageningen University & Research.

An overview of the standard densities we use to calculate the proportion of a particular feed in the silage:

Voeder Densiteit (kg DS/m³)
Grass Pit
230
Cutting corn pit
260
Beet press pulp
180
Beer Brew
225
Potato press fibers
150
Potato steam peels
150
CCM
500
MKS
350
Fodder beet
100
Lucerne
170
Potatoes
150
Other roughage
245
Other by-product
175
Other concentrates
620
Other compound feed
560
Additives
1500

After clicking [Apply], the proportion of feed is calculated automatically. You can display the proportion of feed in % fresh product or in % dry matter.

About the authors

  • Daya Will

    Daya provides agricultural support in Farmdesk, both internally and externally. Based on her passion for agriculture, she guides dairy farmers, analyzes datasets, conducts hands-on research and evaluates user experiences.