September 8 - Day 123 - “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” – Albert Camus

As Summer comes to an end (though saying that on a very hot day seems a bit odd), wrapped bails have become a feature of our fields. Although I’ve got used to them stacked in farmyards, they do still seem out of place and unnatural when seen in the field.

I sort of knew that wrapping hay for silage is done to keep the oxygen so that the bacteria breaks down which ultimately helps the animals digestive system. What I didn’t know (and I’m sure you’re desperate to know my useless fact of the week) is that there is a great debate amongst farmers as to which colour wrap is best. White is apparently popular in Europe and New Zealand but there remains a debate in the UK about black wrap, green wrap or light colours resulting in higher quality silage. And then.. there’s the unusual colours that I didn’t realise were about suppliers supporting specific charities.

Now if someone could scientifically prove that wraps in the specific yellow used for St Wilfrid’s Centre leads to the best silage then I’m sure we could raise lots of money and see the fields covered in a much more cheerful colour. Given that despite the varied colours, I don’t think I’ve seen yellow, there might just be a problem with this but you never know.

What I really liked, however, on one of the forums was the approach by one farmer,

‘Maybe I will do a really scientific experiment and put a bale of each colour in front of the feed barriers and see which the cows finish first…!’ Seems a good idea to me. Perhaps a chocolate company could do the same with me to check which colour wrapper is best?!