PICKLING OUR ORGANIC GRASS
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
If you’re out and about in the British countryside at this time of year you may see lots of large black plastic bales dotted around the fields - it´s silage season.
Here in Devon during late June, the fields around the Eversfield Organic farm were humming with the sound of tractors as the first silage crop of the year was harvested.
What´s silage?
‘Silage’ is the agricultural name given to cut grass which is packed into large round bales, wrapped in plastic, allowed to ferment during several months of storage before being used as feed for our cattle in the winter months. It’s really just ‘pickled grass’ which doesn’t sound very tasty - but cows love it!
Why do we need silage?
During the winter our organic meadows are dormant and not very rich in nutrients. So, we bring our cattle into the barns where they're given organic food including silage. They also enjoy the protection from the wet and windy winter weather. At the same time, it gives the meadows a chance to rest before the spring growing season.
We harvest the grass when it is richest - in summer, so the cattle can still benefit from all that goodness even in winter.
Our organic silage is special.
Before cutting the grass, our organic meadows have been allowed to grow rich in wild flowers and naturally occurring wild herbs. The extra growing time ensures that the grasses are more fibrous and it takes longer for the cow´s stomach to digest it, therefore their bodies can extract more nutrients making them healthier and improving the quality of our organic beef.
The wildlife too benefits from tall meadows, since the wild flowers attract butterflies, bees and other creepy crawlies which are essential to the food chain.
The meadows are now left to grow again for several weeks before another silage harvest in late summer.
These photos show some of our meadows being cut and the silage bales stored in the farmyard.
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