Time and money saved at silage time

Additives such as Ecosyl 100 and Ecocool can be applied in ULV, ‘ultra-low’ water volumes.
By The Newsroom
Published 4th Jun 2021, 08:34 BST

For example, applying in 20ml of water per tonne compared to conventional water volumes of 1 or 2 litres per tonne of forage treated.

This means you have an 100 times less water to be handle, fetch and carry in the middle of silage making!

According to Ken Stroud, Ecosyl NI specialist at Volac, Ultra Low Volume application, ULV has three practical, in the field benefits:

- Time savings - ULV saves time and work otherwise spent carting and mixing large volumes of water Plus that slow moving time spent waiting for the additive tank to refill. Time that can be devoted to more useful chores.

- Less effort - ULV can be mixed virtually anywhere and is much less cumbersome than lugging about big barrels of water. Any Ecosyl mixed for ULV applications is also easy to put back in the bottles if harvest is interrupted.

It will last up to 10 days if refrigerated. A waste not want not bonus when rain stops play!.

- Potential financial gains - less stoppage time to refill the additive tank means more hectares cut per day. With freed up effort put to better use to help reduce waste and produce better silage

Just how does ULV work? Ken Stroud explains: “A standard 2-litre bottle of Ecosyl contains enough freeze-dried beneficial bacteria to preserve 100 tonnes of forage.

“With conventional application the contents of that bottle have to be diluted with 100 litres of water if applying at a volume of 1 litre per tonne of forage, or with 200 litres of water if applying at a volume of 2 litres per tonne.

“With ULV, on the other hand, the Ecosyl bottle is simply mixed with 2 litres of water, there’s a handy 2-litre mark on the bottle, then poured directly into the specially-designed ULV applicator tank.

“This allows an application volume of just 20 ml per tonne of forage.

“In each case, the same 2-litre bottle of Ecosyl is enough to treat 100 tonnes of forage and the same quantity of beneficial bacteria is being applied per tonne.

“It’s just that with ULV it is being delivered onto the forage using much less water.

“This technology has been in use for around 20 years so virtually all self-propelled forage harvesters are suitable for ULV application.

“But some types of harvesters – such as forage wagons and trailed harvesters – may not be. So do check this.

“Other than that, you simply need to install the ULV applicator, and choose the appropriate Ecosyl additive.”

Continuing Ken Stroud warned that not every additive can be applied via ULV. If it doesn’t say suitable for ULV on the label, it may not be. Check!

Ecosyl products suitable for ULV application are Ecosyl 100 for clamped grass and legumes, plus Ecocool for forages at risk of aerobic spoilage due to heating, such as maize, wholecrop cereals, and higher dry matter grass silage.

For free advice contact Ken Stroud tel; 077 1319 7084 or Volac Ecosyl distributors in NI John Thompson & Son Ltd tel; (028) 9035 1321.