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[RC] Silage vs. chaffhaye - Sisu West RanchAfter posting my pervious post, I got interested in this discussion. Being as my favorite hockey team* is off tonight I did a quick searchFrom Wikipedia: Fermentation Silage undergoes anaerobic fermentation, which starts about 48 hours after the silo is filled. In the past, the fermentation was conducted by indigenous microorganisms, but, today, some bulk silage is inoculated with specific microorganisms to speed fermentation or improve the resulting silage. The process converts sugars to acids and exhausts any oxygen present in the crop material. Fermentation is essentially complete after about two weeks. Silage inoculants contain one or more strains of lactic acid bacteria, and the most common is Lactobacillus plantarum. Other bacteria used in inoculants include Lactobacillus buchneri, Enterococcus faecium and Pediococcus species. . From Wikipedia: First, as I suspected the fermentation of properly made silage produces acids which prevent the growth of C. Botulinum, and other bad microorgainsms. On feeding horses: Horses are also sensitive to molds and toxins. For this reason, they must never be fed contaminated fermentable materials such as lawn clippings.[6] Fermented silage or "haylage" is fed to horses in some places; however, contamination or failure of the fermentation process that allows any mold or spoilage may be toxic.[7][8] This is telling me that if and only if the producer of a fermented product makes sure (by testing each batch?) that no molds toxic to horses are in a bag, it would work. From Chaffhaye site: "...This initiates an all natural fermentation in the bag which closely mimics the digestive process that occurs in the digestive tract of horses and livestock. The fermentation relies on the active participation of yeast, beneficial enzymes and fiber-digesting bacteria to "pre-digest" the feed by stripping out the..." The phrase "all natural fermentation" implies that the yeasts and bacteria are already on the grass/alfalfa. I wonder if in practice they add the proper "natural" bacteria and yeast to make sure that no bad ones get in the mix and poison horses. For millenia Greek goatherds made Yogert by "natural" fermention. The Yogert you and I purchase in the USA is made by adding precise amounts of the exact mix of exact strains of bacteria to pasturized milk. I think at least some of the cartons use the term natural. I guess my considered opinion is that Chaffhaye is actually silage, but it is silage industrially produced so the product is consistent, and not toxic to horses. Since I have carefully set up my life so that I can produce my very own, non moldy, weed seed free hay, I will pass on this product. Ed Hauser 2994 Mittower Road Victor, MT 59875 *"Hockey is not a matter of life or death, it is much more important than that " -- The whole population of Canada , ca. any year since 1900. Ed & Wendy Hauser 2994 Mittower Road Victor, MT 59875 (406) 381-5527 ranch(at)sisuwest(dot)us =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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