Offered Papers Theme C: Delivering the Benefits from Grassland

Description

The forage-livestock industry represents a major agricultural enterprise throughout the world. In the United States, forages comprise 40-60% of the dairy cow's diet with many producers feeding 50-100% of this forage as silage (Kempisty, 1997). Harvesting forages as silage continues to increase as the size of farms increase and the mechanisation of silage harvesting allows timely harvest of a greater area. There are many factors that affect the quality of silage and producers need to better understand these factors to optimise their silage making process. Our objective was to develop a web-based learning module to help users better understand the processes involved in silage fermentation and how management practices can influence those processes.

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An Interactive, Web-Based Module to Teach the Principles of Silage Fermentation

The forage-livestock industry represents a major agricultural enterprise throughout the world. In the United States, forages comprise 40-60% of the dairy cow's diet with many producers feeding 50-100% of this forage as silage (Kempisty, 1997). Harvesting forages as silage continues to increase as the size of farms increase and the mechanisation of silage harvesting allows timely harvest of a greater area. There are many factors that affect the quality of silage and producers need to better understand these factors to optimise their silage making process. Our objective was to develop a web-based learning module to help users better understand the processes involved in silage fermentation and how management practices can influence those processes.