Size of silo
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The size of a silo is dependent on the number of animals to be fed, the quantity of silage fed to each animal per day, the length of the dry season and quantity of available plant material.
As a rough guide silage made in small scale silos is approximately 500kg/cm3. If a trench silo is 2 meters wide and 1.2 meters high, and assuming that a cow requires 40 kg of silage per day and forage maize yields 25 ton DM/Ha and silo losses at 15% of the original material ensiled then the length of silo will be as follows:
| No of animals | Length of dry season (days) | Silo length (m) | Area of crop maize (Ha) |
| 2 | 90 | 8.5 | 0.9 |
| 2 | 120 | 11.3 | 1.1 |
| 4 | 90 | 17 | 1.71 |
| 4 | 120 | 22.6 | 2.3 |
| 6 | 90 | 22.6 | 2.5 |
| 6 | 120 | 34 | 3.4 |