silvopasture

Tree Fodder Silage Experiment Video and Invitation for Comments

Hey Folks. I wanted to share this video I made of an experiment ensiling tree and shrub species in a five gallon bucket. I was inspired by a Mexican Agave silage project, where they ensiled Agave leaves in five gallon buckets for a nutritious climate fighting solution using livestock and climate appropriate food producing polyculture systems. I foresee a time where it will be more expensive to use a tractor to make round bales, and silage for winter feed. I also foresee a time when more and more people will be returning to the land to find meaningful work. Match those together and you have the potential to grow tree hay for bucket silage. This technique could also help during drought years.

Have others tried making tree leaf silage?

Check out my video:

https://youtu.be/Od01tMivOZ4

Also, to learn more about the Mexican Agave silage project read this article:

https://regenerationinternational.org/2020/01/20/agave-power-how-a-...

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Comment by Sienna Valente-Blough on September 10, 2020 at 10:09am: This is super cool, thanks for sharing!

I'm going to give this a tree with our trees as well for the goats!

Comment by Jonathan Bates on February 18, 2021 at 1:57pm: Hey folks. I thought I would add some other links for interesting follow up research, mostly how willow can be used as fodder:

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/media/46509/tree-leaves-for-livest...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpYPLEImyDM&feature=emb_logo

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/29ea/a589d5cce744bddc114d5b12e55bb...

Comment by Matt Cantrell on November 12, 2021 at 2:29pm: Nice video Jonathan! Do you think there is any timing concerns with preparing silage like this? For example when to gather, how long to ferment (ensile?), and how long it can be stored? Seems like a viable method for storing winter feed. I've also wanted to look into baling tree hay (in sure there are plenty of resources here... I'm a newby).

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