The Magic Silage

While we in the Northeast continue to mourn our deaths and the loss of our towns and villages to terrorists in connivance with some unscruplous elements among those that have been trained and paid for decades to defend us (Ihejirika and Sheriff are yet to come up with a convincing defence), those of us enjoying some degree of peace must continue to work hard to do feed the nation, a job that this region is best known for. Already, we are running a food deficit, given that millions of hectares that cannot be cultivated in areas under the old Kanem-Borno Empire.

In this picture, a 60-year old forage harvester is seen cutting my maize crop in bits and pieces and piling it on the 6m x 8m x 2m silage platform that we built two weeks ago.

Silage is an animal feed made by harvesting plant crops, chiefly maize, when it starts grain filling and cutting the stalks, with the cops intact, into small pieces using a forage harvester or even manually using a machetes if necessary. The cut pieces are piled in a trench or on a platform on which a polythene sheet (leda, Hausa) is spread.

As the forage mound is piled, urea and salt can be added to increase the crude nitrogen content of the silage and improve its palatability (taste) to the animals. The silage also needs to be compacted, usualy done with a tractor driving forward and backward on it.

After the mound of forage cuttings is complete, another sheet is used to cover it in continuity with the one below such that the enveloped mound of forage below is both water- and airtight.

Finally, after it is compacted and covered with the polythene sheet, the silage mound is further covered with soil to a thickness of at least 4 inches. This will give further support to the sheet and serve as a weight that will help further compact the silage and expel its water as much as possible.

Now here comes the magic of silage: you have burried it fresh green now; you can open it and use it to feed your animals any time after 3 months. If you decide to use it after six years, Mr. Silage will be there waiting for you, still looking green and fresh. Take it in bits everyday and serve it to the animals. Wao! Wao!! Wao!!!

No doubt, my cows will be smiling. When I started serving them its meal in 2006, I heard them say, through their eagerness to grab it, "We have never tasted something better. God bless you Dr."

With enough hay, silage and, if you like, a little concentrate, your animals would not need to graze outside. They can remain in their pen for 12 months a year.

The villagers think I am mad, cutting down maize without harvesting its grains or planting grass for cattle instead of maize or guinea corn for people.

However, I am convinced that I am wiser, if only they know:
Bye-bye to contagious bovine diseases; welcome peace, plenty milk, beef and a waxing bank account.

8 September 2014