This text accommodates paid for content material produced in collaboration with FM BioEnergy
Following profitable trials in 2023/24 at Evesham-based Vale Inexperienced Vitality’s biogas plant, a brand new grass silage additive from FM BioEnergy has additional proved its worth and flexibility this yr (2024/25). Silasil Vitality SG has delivered spectacular outcomes throughout a variety of conditions from excessive dry matter grasses within the West Midlands to moist fourth-cut silage in Northern Eire.
Silasil Vitality SG was particularly developed to offer a silage additive for the variability of UK-grown grass, and is equally efficient at a variety of dry issues, temperatures and pH ranges. That includes a novel mixture of 4 bacterial strains, as an alternative of the standard two present in different silage components, it has confirmed very best for the unpredictable summer season climate seen throughout the UK in recent times. Andy Lee, FM BioEnergy’s UK Forage Supervisor, explains:
“Within the UK and Eire, we’ve had two years with extremely unpredictable climate for making silage. In some areas it was moist early, in others it was too sizzling throughout mid-summer, drying crops out. In Northern Eire significantly, they’ve had two atrocious years. Which means that farmers have confronted actually difficult circumstances. Nevertheless, Silasil Vitality SG has proved its effectiveness in two of the worst years attainable for silage manufacturing.”
Saving moist silage
One person grateful for the advantages of Silasil Vitality SG is Willsborough AD close to Derry/Londonderry in Northern Eire. The five hundred kW on-farm biogas plant is predominantly fed utilizing grass silage and wholecrop silage however with common rainfall round 3.6 inches (92mm) monthly, it may be onerous to provide the advisable minimal dry matter content material of 25%.
“I’m actually happy with the outcomes we’ve had from utilizing Silasil Vitality SG this season,” says Willsborough AD proprietor Rob Gallagher. “Prior to now we’ve had points with clamps heating and spoiling. Nevertheless, with Silasil Vitality SG, from the entrance of the clamp to the very finish, the feedstock stays chilly and free from yeasts and moulds throughout the season. This hasn’t all the time been the case with among the different silage components we’ve tried over time.”
“The quantity of rainfall in Northern Eire and the north of England could make it very onerous to provide dry silage,” explains Andy Lee. “Ideally, silage must be wilted for a most of 36 hours in any other case the cardio micro organism begin to eat all of the vitamins, however moist climate can delay this. The opposite difficulty is that a number of turning of windrows to dry moist grass will increase the possibility of contamination with soil, manure, and many others, growing the dangers of butyric acid formation. It’s due to this fact extra essential to reap it inside 36 hours of reducing, regardless of how dry it’s, and the fantastic thing about Silasil Vitality SG is that it’ll protect the crop even at low dry issues.”
Evaluation in April 2025 after 22 weeks of storage confirmed that final yr’s fourth reduce silage, which had dry matter under 24% at harvest, was nonetheless in good situation with good gasoline yield potential. “Regardless of low dry matter of simply 22%, key high quality parameters together with protein and acid ranges have been good, and the pH was under 4,” provides Andy. “With out the usage of Silasil Vitality SG that silage would have been fully unusable attributable to its low dry matter.”
Equally good for dry silage
Whereas Northern Eire and the west of Scotland have been wetter than common final yr, within the West Midlands it was a special story, with areas corresponding to Shropshire getting lower than 20% rain than common.
This poses a special problem – one main dairy farm with a 1.4 MW biogas plant produced first reduce grass silage above 40% dry matter final summer season. The farm trialled Silasil Vitality SG and the outcomes have been conclusive.
“Their first reduce grass silage had virtually 41% dry matter with excessive protein and digestibility,” explains Andy. “After we examined samples from the clamp in March 2025, there have been no yeasts or moulds, and the crop was very secure. The truth is, the evaluation was probably the greatest outcomes for grass silage I’ve ever seen.
“The farmer significantly likes the truth that he doesn’t have to fret about what the summer season climate goes to be like – he is aware of the product will work equally nicely, whether or not it’s a washout or a scorcher. Plus, holding the biogas silage clamps free from yeasts and moulds helps to cut back the danger of contaminating the dairy cattle feed elsewhere on the farm.”
Expertise reinforces unique trials
The experiences of FM BioEnergy’s clients all through 2024 underline the outcomes from preliminary trials at Vale Inexperienced Vitality’s 1.5 MW Spring Hill AD plant. Vale Inexperienced trialled Silasil Vitality SG on 12,000 tonnes of grass silage harvested from three cuts in 2023, and Feedstock Supervisor Nick Reynolds was impressed with the outcomes. “Not solely is it straightforward to use, nevertheless it works on each moist and dry grass, holding the clamp face cool and guaranteeing the power stays within the silage,” he commented.
Samples of handled and untreated grass at harvest confirmed that ranges of lactic acid and acetic acid within the samples that had been handled with Silasil Vitality SG had doubled after simply three days in comparison with the untreated silage. Common acetic acid ranges have been 0.454 within the handled samples, in comparison with 0.178 within the untreated samples. Seven months later, acid ranges have been equally excessive, and the pH remained secure at just below 4. Given this, it’s no shock that Vale Inexperienced used Silasil Vitality SG on all its grass silage once more in 2024.
“With constructive outcomes from very completely different samples throughout two troublesome years, Silasil Vitality SG has confirmed itself to be an especially dependable grass silage additive regardless of the climate circumstances or dry matter of the silage being produced,” stresses Andy Lee.
