Forage Harvesting of Maize & Grass

A self-propelled forage harvester cuts the crop and chops it in one pass, blowing it straight into a trailer running alongside. Full trailers peel off to the stack or pit while the next one takes their place, so the harvester keeps moving and the crop comes in fast.

We harvest both maize and grass. With maize, timing decides the quality of the silage. The Foundation for Arable Research advises that good quality maize silage is best made when whole plant dry matter is between 30 and 40 percent, and that crop maturity should be checked about three weeks before harvest. Harvested too wet, the stack loses nutrients as leachate.

Grass for silage is mown and wilted first, then picked up by the harvester. For smaller areas, or where you would rather have bales, our round and square bale silage is the other way to do it.