authorities’4. They agreed that compression was facilitated by passing the forage through a chaff-cutter, that sufficient dead weight was exerted by nine inches of earth or sand, and that mechanical systems had an advantage to avoid exposing silage to air when refilling due to shrinkage. Overall the Commission saw the main advantages under three headings: • Rendering the farmer independent of weather in saving his crops
• Increasing the productive capabilities of farms (forage weight, rotation, storage) • Feeding (dairy, breeding, store, fattening stock and farm horses) Following the series of wet hay-making years 1878-1883, and the
positive Jenkins and Ensilage Commission’s reports, many farmers were encouraged to experiment with silage-making. It has been estimated that in Great Britain 33,000 tons of silage were made in 1884, growing to 144,000 tons in the five years to 1889. Fifty years later (1940) this figure had only grown by a further 105,000 tons, which has prompted the question why? There is no doubt that moving wet cut grass is hard work, weighs four times that of hay and requires much more labour; and as livestock numbers intensified so did the effort required to make silage. The capital cost of building a silo was a barrier, and a poor experience by inadvertently making butyric silage is reported to have discouraged many farmers from trying again. From 1940 to 1970, with the tractor replacing the horse, the tonnage of silage increased by
about 1.5 million tons per decade, then in the 1970s and 1980s several technical innovations (machinery, polythene, additives, seed varieties, fertilizer, etc) made silage-making easier and more likely to produce a good quality feedstuff. So after 6000 years after food was first stored in pits, the ensilage process has evolved but still has practical application.
References
Brassley, Paul. ‘Silage in Britain, 1880-1990: The Delayed Adoption of an Innovation’, The Agricultural History Review, Vol 44, 1996. Brown, JB. ‘‘Ensilage of Green Crops’ from the French of Auguste Goffart, With the Latest Facts connected with this system’, New York, 1880. Goffart, A. ‘Manuel de la Culture et de l’Ensilage des Mais et autres fourrages verts’, Paris, 1877. Jenkins, HM. ‘Report on the Practise of Ensilage at Home and Abroad’, Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, 2nd series, Vol 20, 1884, pp126-246. Johnston, FJW. ‘On the Feeding Qualities of the Natural and Artificial Grasses in different states of Dryness’, Trans. Highland & Agricultural Soc. 1843, Vol 9, New Series, pp57-61. Reynolds, Peter J. ‘Grain storage in Underground Silos’, Butser Ancient Farm Yearbook, 1986. Salmon Gums. Research Government of Western Australia, 2019 Station
https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/barley/underground-storage-grain Symonds, John. ‘Observations made in Italy on the use of leaves in feeding cattle’, Annals of Agriculture collected by Arthur Young, 1784, Vol 1, pp207-219 Tyler, C. ‘The History of Silage Making’, Dept of Agricultural Chemistry, University of Reading, 1957.
Miles, WJ. ‘Modern Practical Farriery, etc’, William Mackenzie, c1890. The Guardian. ‘Food for Cattle’, Friday, January 13th, 1882. ‘American Agricultural Notes’, February 15th, 1882.
The Times. ‘French Agriculture – Ensilage’, Friday, October 20th, 1882. Wilkins, Roger J. ‘Grassland in the Twentieth Century’, IGER, 2000.
4. This divided opinion is exemplified with regard to feeding concentrated foods or condiments from 1855.
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