Day 74..
Plant & soil science and agricultural crop production
With a whole load of printed material and reference books and help from charlotte we worked our way through the remaining questions on our plant structure and function assignment. Part of this was handed in last week however there were still a few questions outstanding so we set about completing these. Various tasks included the processes of plant water uptake, water movement and loss, respiration and photosynthesis. I'm afraid this is my weakest subject so far!!!
Grassland management
Gill today discussed how to make good grass silage.. the key processes to making silage are cutting, spreading, wilting, picking up, filling the clamp (or baling) and sealing the clamp. Get all these right and the following stages are more likely to result in the best possible silage:- 1) the Aerobic stage - this takes hours and oxygen levels are reduced. 2) the Fermentation stage - occurs over a few weeks where the pH level drops to between 3.7 and 5.0. 3) the Stable stage - happens over 2-3 days where the pH stabilises at around 3.8 to 4.3. 4) the Storage stage - keeping the silage airtight until it is to be used during winter feeding. Clamps may benefit from additives being introduced to help the above processes and include inoculants, enzymes, acid based additives and sugar sources (including sugar beet pulp). Additives help to preserve the silage so that it maintains as many of the nutrients as possible for winter feeding.
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