Research and Product Testing Services
Our preservative solutions were developed together with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), and their efficacy has been demonstrated many times since. The products are tested on different crops with different dry matter contents and pushed to the limit under extremely poor ensiling conditions to prove their broad efficacy.
Studies on Safesil have been published in scientific journals such as the Journal of Dairy Science and Journal of Animal Science. As is customary for this type of journal, the articles underwent tough peer reviews in which the study set-up and interpretations of their results were thoroughly checked by other scientists before they were accepted for publication. The results have also been presented at major silage conferences such as the International Silage Conference, International Symposium Forage Conservation, The Nordic Feed Science Conference and the American Dairy Science Association. All of the studies demonstrated Safesil’s ability to produce stable silage with reduced losses.
In several studies, two of Sweden’s most prominent scientists in the field of ensiling, Rolf Spörndly and Martin Knicky (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) showed that Safesil reduces the number of clostridium spores and undesirable bacteria in several different crops and ley mixtures of red clover, timothy grass and meadow fescue. In wet silage (DM < 30%), where the risk of clostridium is greatest, Safesil reduced both clostridium and butyric acid. As a result of the reduced microbial activity, the DM losses were also lower in the Safesil-treated silage.
Limin Kung Jr. and his research team at Delaware University in the USA have studied Safesil for many years. Corn and alfalfa are the most common crops in North America. Kung has shown that Safesil Pro and Safesil Challenge quickly reduce undesirable micro-organisms such as yeast and enterobacteria during the ensilation of really wet alfalfa that has also been exposed to air to introduce further stress to the process. Corn is a crop that quickly breaks down before and during feeding, but Safesil provides both better feed stability and protection against overheating. Modern gene technology has shown that silage treated with Safesil contains fewer strains of yeast, which is probably the underlying reason for the good feed stability.
Marketta Rinne and her research team at the LUKE Natural Resources Institute Finland have shown that Safesil not only protects silage during ensiling but also that silage treated with Safesil before storage remains more stable all the way out to the feed mix.