Silotite – 20 years on: bpi.agri talks to the father of baled silage
Back in the early 1980’s a gentleman now well-renowned in farming circles as the father of baled silage was beginning to make tracks in revolutionising the way farmers could conserve grass for future feed.
Lloyd Forster, originally a hill farmer in Northumberland, pioneered the use of plastic bags for conserving round bales of wilted grass in 1978. That year following a long spell of very unsettled weather Lloyd began thinking about how he could conserve his good grass. He considered the matter for a while and then thought: What about plastic bags? Following a search for bags big enough to contain a bale Lloyd ordered 80 and proceeded to bag the bales he had created using a neighbour’s baler.
Lloyd contacted ADAS to tell them what he was doing and shortly afterwards he was visited by the mechanisation officer who observed the bagged system. Following this visit word got around the UK trade magazines who reported the story nationwide and soon after Lloyd was contacted by interested parties from all over the world. He was surprised as to how quickly the news spread.
When feeding the bales that winter Lloyd was delighted with the product. Its appearance was that of traditional silage but it had a very pleasant sweet-smelling aroma. The cattle agreed and ate it willingly.
The following summer Lloyd developed his system further and contacted Visqueen, now a division of bpi.agri, to source quality polythene film for his silage bags. The system was working well - The animals were satisfied with the end product; a new concept in grass conservation and silage production was born. Lloyd was quickly learning the benefits of bagged silage and was more than willing to pass his knowledge on to fellow farmers. In 1979, around 20,000 tonne of silage was conserved by this method. In 1980, the tonnage rose dramatically as more and more Farmers got to hear about this alternative method of grass conservation. That year ADAS decided to conduct trial work to understand more about this new method and were quite amazed at the results. These trials covered all aspects of the system and demand for information grew from farmers.
Lloyd spent the next few years travelling the world undertaking meetings, demonstrations and open days advising farmers on the system. In 1984, he visited Australia and Tasmania to talk on the subject. Whilst there he was approached by a company who were building a machine to stretch-wrap round bales and they asked him if there was a market in the UK for such a machine. Over the next year, Lloyd worked with the machinery manufacturers to develop the system further with the use of stretch-wrap. News of the new wrappers spread and this brought even more interest as Lloyd continued to work with the manufacturers to perfect the system.
In 1985, Silotite bale wrap was being developed to keep abreast of these dramatic and leading-edge changes in silage production. 1986 saw the first commercial sales of Silotite and since then the product has continually advanced with the ever improving wrapping equipment. Bpi.agri, the British manufacturers of Silotite, have built up a wealth of experience and expertise in the manufacture and application of bale wrap products over the last 20 years. This expertise not only covers the UK marketplace, but also the varying climatic conditions of export markets with temperatures ranging from -35oC to +40oC. One of the benefits of being a British company is that bpi.agri has field personnel based in every region able to respond quickly to the many requests for information or training they receive annually.
Lloyd switched totally to round bales in 1980 when he noted the cows preference to it compared with pit silage. He also found there was less waste and qualities could be identified and fed accordingly. Baled silage is now a multi-million pound business world-wide and Lloyd is proud to have been able to help farmers with their conservation needs. Lloyd has been honoured with a number of awards including being made a Fellow of RASE and receiving the Massey Ferguson Award for Service to Agriculture. He feels particularly privileged though to have met a wide cross section of the agricultural community both in the UK and abroad whilst bringing the benefits of baled silage to the world’s attention.
Bale wrapping has come a long way since its introduction and bpi.agri is committed to further developing the high level of service and products it provides to this market, an essential part of modern agriculture.
DATE: 17/07/2006
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