Grass silage
Grass silage is a silage made from meadow or field grass . It is used as basic feed , especially for ruminants, and as a fermentation substrate in biogas plants ( energy grass ).
Plant species used
For the production of grass silage, on the one hand, the growth of intensively cultivated meadows is used, and on the other hand, the cut is used specifically for this purpose cultivated field grass . If the feed is produced from the growth of meadows, it naturally contains biomass of all the plants grown on the harvested areas. As a rule, these include herbs and legumes in addition to sweet grasses . When using arable grass, the species composition essentially depends on the seed mixture. Both the culture of individual species such as B. the German ryegrass , as well as the use of species mixtures such as the Landsberger mixture or, especially in organic farming , clover-grass mixtures ( clover grass ).
Extraction and conservation
The grass is usually before flowering, earlier rather than with the haymaking stored mowed and wilting on the harvested area. When the dry matter is around 35 to 40 percent , the harvested crop is picked up with a loading wagon or forage harvester and transported to the silo , where it is piled up and compacted by machine. The mass is covered airtight for fermentation - in the usual silos, usually with plastic film - and stored until it is used.
An alternative to silage preservation in a fixed silo (mostly driving silo) is ensiling in silage bales. The crop is compacted in the field with baling presses into round or square bales, which are then wrapped airtight with film using a bale wrapping device.
use
Grass silage is used as basic feed (fermentation feed ), especially in cattle farming, but also in other animal husbandry, such as B. in horse keeping. There it represents an alternative to other types of silage such as maize silage as well as green fodder and hay .
| material | Biogas yield in m 3 per ton of fresh mass |
Methane content |
|---|---|---|
| Corn silage | 202 | 52% |
| Grass silage | 172 | 54% |
| Rye GPS | 163 | 52% |
| Pressed sugar beet pulp ensiled |
125 | 52% |
| Fodder beet | 111 | 51% |
| Biowaste | 100 | 61% |
| Chicken litter | 80 | 60% |
| Pig manure | 60 | 60% |
| Cattle manure | 45 | 60% |
| Grain Meat | 40 | 61% |
| Pig manure | 28 | 65% |
| Cattle manure | 25th | 60% |
As fermentation substrate use grass silage more than a third of the biogas plants in Germany, but usually only in small amounts: At the mass of the used renewable resources of grass silage proportion is only 9 percent. The use of long-fiber grass silage as a fermentation substrate requires suitable plant technology. Dry fermentation has proven its worth with high proportions of grass silage .
Web links
- Ueli Wyss: The silage rules for grass silage. (PDF, Federal Research Institute for Farm Animals; 147 kB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Fachagentur Nachwachsende Rohstoffe e. V. (FNR): Biogas basic data Germany. (PDF; as of October 2008). Source for all information except for pressed pulp.
- ↑ Biogas yields of different substrates, division potatoes / beets lfl.bayern.de, see pressed pulp ensiled .
- ↑ P. Weiland: Technical requirements for the fermentation of energy crops. ( Memento of the original from February 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (pdf; 915 kB) Presentation at the DECHEMA Bioenergy Conference, Güstrow, 8. – 9. March 2009.
- ↑ Institute for Energy and Environment , 2008: Monitoring the effect of the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) on electricity generation from biomass. Final report on behalf of the BMU, p. 54.
photos
Grass clippings are picked up from swaths with a short-cut loading wagon for transport to the silo
Pulled forage harvester with PTO drive during the grass silage harvest
Compacting grass clippings in a silo
Bale wrapper
Grass silage as feed for cattle
