Optisile Maize

Developed and made at EnviroSystems in Lancashire, OptiSile® Maize is an organically registered maize silage preservative.

OptiSile® Maize is designed to target the high fibre and starch content of maize forage. The high dry matter of maize grain makes it difficult to achieve and maintain the anaerobic conditions in the clamp which are required for optimum ensiling. OptiSile® Maize is specifically designed with this in mind.

Why choose OptiSile® Maize?

• Made in the UK
• Rapid fermentation actively inhibits invasive bacteria (clostridia/listeria)
• Maximises nutrient preservation
• Minimises dry matter and protein losses
• Long-term protection against mycotoxin producing fungi and yeasts
• Organically approved
• Increased air stability during feed out
• High palatability and safety
• Suits higher dry matters

The Science of OptiSile® 

OptiSile® silage inoculants employ a triple strain bacterial approach to preserving your fresh forage for winter feeding to ensure optimum retention of nutritional value.

Strain 1 – homofermentative bacteria

These three strains include the common silage inoculant Lactobacillus plantarum, a homofermentative bacteria which rapidly becomes the dominant species in your silage, out competing invasive bacteria (such as clostridia and listeria). This bacteria produces large quantities of lactic acid, lowering the pH of your silage to ~5, killing off any residual invasive bacteria and creating conditions under which other pathogenic bacteria can not survive.

Strain 2 – heterofermentative bacteria

Our second strain of bacteria, a heterofermentative lactobacillus, starts working alongside the Lactobacillus plantarum and produces a mixture of lactic and acetic acid. The addition of the
acetic acid provides invaluable antifungal protection against mycotoxin producing fungi and yeasts.

Strain 3 – heterofermentative bacteria

Once the first two strains have created acidic conditions in the silage of around pH 5, our third strain of bacteria starts to populate the silage. This is another heterofermentative lactobacillus
strain optimised for growing at low pH conditions. This bacteria secretes more lactic and acetic acid, further lowering the pH to ~4.5 where very few bacteria and fungi can survive. This slow
growing bacteria also provides long term protection against aerobic bacteria and fungi once the clamp face has been opened and exposed to oxygen during feed out.

A winning combination

The unique combination of these three bacterial strains create optimum conditions for fast, stable preservation, maximise palatability and nutrient availability whilst minimising the contamination with bacteria, yeasts and mycotoxin producing fungi. The inoculant has proven effective on many farms, over a wide range of crop types and dry matters in the UK and abroad.

Protect your silage and it’ll pay dividends

Ensiling crops is fundamentally based on nutrient preservation to ensure a high-quality feed out of forage over the winter months.

Nutritionally, this means ensuring you maintain the dry matter of your silage in order to end up with the highest possible energy and protein values. This should help to achieve high palatability, intake and digestibility values ensuring the preserved nutrients are available to your cows.

By achieving this, it results in cows eating more forage, an increased nutrient intake, a higher milk-from-forage return, all whilst requiring less bought in feed, thereby offering a double return on investment.

Where OptiSile® helps…

OptiSile® additives help to ensure these objectives are achieved over a range of different crop types and dry matters. OptiSile® uses a unique combination of three bacterial strains to promote fast fermentation of the fresh silage, for a stable preservation. It also works to minimise the bacterial, fungal and yeast contamination which not only result in nutrient losses, but can pose serious health risks to your cows.

The BioCircle®

OptiSile® inoculants fit into the EnviroSystems’ BioCircle concept by helping to preserve the nutrients in the grass, maximising the nutrient transfer from soil to cow.

This increase in nutrients leads to improved cow health, and a greater milk-from-forage conversion.

Additionally, by preserving the nutrients in your forage, we reduce losses to the atmosphere, including DM losses as CO2, resulting in a more efficient and sustainable farming practice

How do you apply?

OptiSile® silage additives come in freeze-dried powder form and simply needs mixing with water prior to application. This makes it suitable for low volume application without wastage.

Do you make different types of forage?

The OptiSile Range

All the issues which apply to preserving Maize also apply to grass, maize, and other ensiled crops. Therefore, the action of OptiSile is just as relevant on any crop which can be clamped or baled and fermented. As well as OptiSile Maize our range also includes and OptiSile Extra and OptiSile Wholecrop.

OptiSile® Extra is designed for the treatment of all types of grass silage. The three strains out-compete any invasive bacteria and work in unison to ensure optimum ensiling of the forage throughout the initial fermentation, prolonged storage and feed out.

OptiSile® Wholecrop is designed to deal with the high starch content of cereal crops, including wheat, barley, oats, legumes and triticale. Wholecrop grain is typically less acidic, and its higher fibre and dry matter content make it difficult to ensure the necessary anaerobic conditions are achieved.

Click below to find out more