The effect of wide swathing on wilting times and nutritive value of alfalfa haylage
Open accessAbstract
On 3 consecutive cuttings, alfalfa from a single field was mowed with a John Deere 946 mower-conditioner (4-m cut width; Moline, IL) to leave narrow swaths (NS) ranging from 1.2 to 1.52 m wide (30-37% of cutter bar width) and wide swaths (WS) ranging from 2.44 to 2.74 m wide (62-67% of cutter bar width). Samples were collected from windrows and dry matter (DM) was monitored during wilting until a target of 43 to 45% DM was obtained. Forage from random windrows (n=4-6) was harvested by hand, chopped through a forage harvester before being packed in replicated vacuum-sealed bags, and allowed to ensile for 65 d. There was no swath width x cutting interaction for any parameter tested. Over all cuttings, the resulting silage DM was not different between the NS silage (43.8%) and the WS silage (44.9%). However, wide swathing greatly reduced the time of wilting before making silage. The hours of wilting time needed to reach the targeted DM for the NS silage compared with the WS silage at cuttings 1, 2, and 3 were 50 versus 29, 54 versus 28, and 25 versus 6, respectively. At the time of ensiling, the WS silage had more water-soluble carbohydrates (5.1%) than did the NS silage (3.7%). The WS silage had a lower pH (4.58) than did the NS silage (4.66), but swath width did not affect fermentation end products (lactic acid, acetic acid, and ethanol). The NS silage had more NH(3)-N (0.26%) than did the WS silage (0.21%). Wide swathing did not affect the concentration of ash or the digestibility of NDF, but it lowered the N content (NS=3.45%; WS=3.23%) and increased the ADF content (NS=39.7%; WS=40.9%) of the resulting silage. Wide swathing can markedly reduce the time that alfalfa must wilt before it can be chopped for silage, but under good conditions, as in this study, the resulting silage quality was generally not improved.
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Wide swathing increased soluble sugar content but had no major effect on silage fermentation.
“Although soluble sugar content was increased by wide swathing, no major effect was observed on silage fermentation.”
From Silage review: Factors affecting dry matter and quality losses in silages (2018) · cites this paper as Kung et al., 2010
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- Authors
- Kung, L., Stough, E. C., McDonell, E. E., Schmidt, R. J., Hofherr, M. W., Reich, L. J., & Klingerman, C. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Delaware (US)
- Corresponding author
- Kung, L.
- Venue
- Journal of Dairy Science
- Publisher
- American Dairy Science Association
- Published
- 2010-04
- Volume
- 93
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 1770-1773
- ISSN
- 0022-0302 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2151776627
- Cited by
- 31
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 4 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 3.39
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Dairy Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agronomy and Crop Science › Ruminant Nutrition and Digestive Physiology
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Mechanical Engineering › Agricultural Engineering and Mechanization
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agronomy and Crop Science › Agricultural Productivity and Crop Improvement
- Keywords
- alfalfa haylage, swath width, silage nutritive value, forage chopping, water-soluble carbohydrates, silage pH, ammonia nitrogen, acid detergent fiber, neutral detergent fiber digestibility, dry matter content, cutting frequency, forage quality, nitrogen content, lactic acid, acetic acid, ethanol, silage additives
- MeSH terms
- Medicago sativa, Animals, Animal Feed, Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena, Cattle, Fermentation, Food Handling, Food Microbiology, Humidity, Nutritive Value, Particle Size, Silage, Temperature, Wind
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