Clamp silage sealing & protection
Tyres have traditionally been used to weight-down silage sheets, but they are not really the most effective tool for this job, and certainly not the most popular with the people who have to place them on and remove them from the clamp!
Tyres hold water, making an ideal breeding-ground for midges, and covering everyone who handles them with smelly, stagnant water. When not in use on the clamp they are difficult to store tidily, and provide a sheltered home for rats. On top of all this, as they degrade over time dangerous wires become exposed, which can, at best, make holes in the silage sheet which is obviously undesirable, and at worst, break off and end up in the silage and, eventually, in the reticulum of the animal that eats it. This often has fatal consequences, and can also lead to expensive veterinary bills.
The cost-effective, long-term solutions for effective sealing and protection of silage in the clamp are ClampTiles™ and/or ClampNet™ available from Kelvin Cave Ltd
ClampTiles™ for use with Silage Sheets
Now, at last, there’s a cleaner, easier and altogether better way of weighting down silage sheets.
ClampTiles are made from 90 per cent re-cycled material with a life expectancy of around 15 years. Unlike tyres, they don’t harbour rainwater and debris, they are easy to handle and when not in use can be stacked on pallets for compact and convenient storage.
Ergonomically designed for ease of handling, they butt together to form a total edge-to-edge protection, helping to minimise bird and rodent damage right across the silage clamp.
There’s nothing simpler, cleaner or more convenient than ClampTiles. Another great idea in action from Kelvin Cave Ltd.
ClampNet™
Yet another great way to protect your valuable silage crops. ClampNet, exclusively from Kelvin Cave Ltd, is a 300g/m² heavy-duty, green silage clamp top cover.
As well as helping to protect silage clamps from birds and mammals, ClampNet covers can reduce spoilage and help to maintain compaction after “SilaPacting”. (Yes, we’ve even come up with a verb for the art of good clamp compaction!)
Made from a finely-woven, UV-stable (there is a ten-year full UV stability guarantee) high density polyethylene (HDPE) material with strongly-stitched edging to prevent fraying, Clampnet’s flexibility enables it to mould into the contours of the silage – giving it maximum contact with the top silage sheet – ideally O2 Barrier 2in1 – to help maintain aerobic stability and minimise wind-lift when weighted down with gravel bags or Clamptiles.
ClampNet is reusable and features reinforced “loops” to enable really secure attachment of gravel bags*, allowing you to focus more weight on the ‘shoulders’ of the clamp.
ClampNet is available in the following sizes:
35m x 10m; 25m x 10m; 20m x 10m; 12m x 15m; 12m x 10m and 16m x 5m.
The ClampNet and gravel-bag* system reduces the amount of air and rainwater getting into the silage, helping to prevent silage spoilage year after year.
*ClampNet gravel-bags are made from the same material and to the same high-quality criteria as ClampNet.
Silage Safe
An alternative to Clampnet is our Silage Safe system for laying over silage sheets, such as O2 Barrier 2in1 and ClampFilm, to afford added protection from wind, rain and vermin. With a projected service life of at least 10 years, Silage Safe can be used time and time again.
The integral tensioning straps replace the need for weights and prevent the ingress of wind and rain that can penetrate and dislodge traditional top sheets leaving the underlying layers vulnerable.
When not in use it can be rolled for ease of storage and takes up far less space and is a lot cleaner and easier to handle than tyres.
As may be seen from the diagram above, Silage Safe is installed from both sides of the clamp in 2 metre widths, each with an integral connecting tube, prior to filling, so it also forms an additional barrier between the clamp sides and the silage sheets, enveloping the feed completely. Once the clamp has been filled and the silage sheets laid, Silage Safe is then unrolled over the clamp and the ends of each width overlapped and drawn together with tensioning straps. As feed is consumed the straps can be released and individual widths of Silage Safe rolled back or removed.
Heavy-duty, 150μm, clear plastic side sheets supplied in 50-metre rolls and convenient widths of 4, 5 and 6 metres.
KlampClips
Made from stainless, spring steel, KlampClips are like an extra pair of hands when lining clamp walls with side sheets. There is no such thing as a standard clamp wall or clamp size so our KlampClips are custom made to precisely fit your wall thickness and as such can be tensioned much more than off the shelf clips. KlampClips are available in packs of 25.
