The most effective way to minimize costs when making silage for your dairy cows is to maximize the quality. Various factors must be considered at virtually every stage of the ensiling process, from initial fermentation to oxygen exposure at opening. Although it is not uncommon to see as much as a 25% or higher loss, targets should fall below 10%. In addition to cost, one of the problems inherent in silage loss is that the portion lost invariably contains the most highly digestible nutrients, i.e., starch, protein and sugars.