Quality of pressed pulp silage in big bales

Recently, pressed pulps are also baled for silage. From March to August 2000 we investigated at four different dates the quality of eight bales, which were made in 1999. As soon as the bales were opened we took samples and subsequently every day a part of about 7 cm was fed to cows. 7 and 14 days after opening the bales again we took samples for analyses. The structure of the pressed pulp silage of the bales was similar to that of the fresh pulp. No butyric acid was found in the silage and the quality of the pressed pulp silage was very good. Furthermore, the samples taken on the first day, when the bales were opened, had higher pH-values and lower lactic acid contents in comparison to the samples taken after 7 or 14 days. This can be explained with the different density within the bales and the intensity of the fermentation. After the taking out the decompacted silages heated very rapidly and within 24 hours they reached the temperature maximum of 28 to 40 °C. The longer the bales stayed open, the more rapidly they heated. This observation can be explained with the development of the yeasts. On the other hand, with a longer storage period, the bales heated a little less rapidly, but these differences were only small.