Keep more of your silage and use less plastic

In every silage stack, valuable nutrients can disappear during fermentation and feedout, often without being noticed. Utilising the conventional black and white plastic can see farmers lose up to 20% of the top metre of the stack due to oxygen exposure and heating. 

For a 12-metre by 50-metre stack, that’s over 28 tonnes of dry matter gone, worth more than $11,000. These losses don’t always show up as waste - they vanish as heat and gas.

But the impact isn’t just quantity. Spoilage organisms break down the most nutritious parts of the feed – starches, sugars, and proteins – leaving behind silage that’s less palatable, lower in energy, and at higher risk of harmful mycotoxins. These toxins can compromise animal health and production.

Reducing oxygen exposure is the key to protecting silage. Traditional plastics allow significant air ingress, even when weighted down with tyres. Air means continued surface spoilage and hidden losses.

Silostop® Orange oxygen barrier film is different. With an oxygen transmission rate of less than five cm³/m²/24hrs, it outperforms conventional plastic (which exceeds 300cm³/m²/24hrs)¹. To put that in perspective, one layer of Silostop® Orange is equivalent to stacking 60 black-and-white covers on top of each other in terms of oxygen ingress protection.

While thin at just 45µm, it is incredibly powerful. Made with a seven-layer co-extrusion of polyethylene and ethylene vinyl alcohol it creates one of the most effective oxygen barriers available. The result? Losses in the top cubic metre of silage drop from 19.5% to just 11.4%, saving feed and money².

The plastic and savings are also significant:

• Silostop® Orange Film: Applied fresh each season it is 1/3 of the plastic weight of conventional black and white and is recyclable through the Plasback® scheme.
• Silostop® SupaCova UV Cover: A durable woven cover that lasts seven plus years with proper care.
• Silostop® Gravel Bags: A cleaner, easier alternative to tyres for sealing edges – better for the environment and simpler to handle.

Together, these innovations reduce farm waste while protecting your silage investment. For more information, contact your local Technical Sales Representative or your Nutritech Area Manager.