horses and silage

[cowboydoc]

Chip,
It's because they are compressed and time released. Meaning that the horse can only digest so much of it at a time. Without the compression release in the cubes the food would be immediately available for absorption. Becuase of the "packaging" of the cube it is time released and therefore you don't get the buildup of gas which leads to colic or the toxins.

I'm really glad that I can help you out. Horses and cattle have been as much a part of my life from the time I was born as anything, probably more. My Grandpa always told me it's not what you take from this world that counts it's what you leave behind.

 

[LazyK]

Doc...There's a great old baler one of my hay-guys has that punched out a 30-35# little bale with a hollow channel through he middle. Breather hole?Hay-kabob hole? I think it was an Oliver or Mass-Ferg. Any way, when I bought some for the 4-Hkids and non-iron-pumpers, I was a hero. Not for long...too expensive and a real laugh-a-minute trying to get the little peesnots to stay on the hay elevator while loading the loft. The buggers would roll back right at the top of the track and start a cascade of back-sliding/rolling mini bales just like a bunch of pooped salmon trying to make it up a waterfall!

 

[MikePA]

doc, the only time I've ever paid by the ton is when I bought the hay and had it delivered. (I only ever did this once - the minimum delivered load was too large and there's no one nearby to split a load with). With the local guy I buy from now, I pay by the bale because he has no means of weighing the hay. I load my pickup, usually right out of the hay wagon, so I know the difference when he packs the bales heavier /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif. Do you have a scale?

 

[cowboydoc]

Mike,
Yea I have a scale on the one farm that I bought. Back home nobody bought by the bale. Everything was sold by the ton. If they didn't have a scale they weighed about five of the bales and got an average # bales/ton. I had never even heard of buying by the bale, at least with any significant amount, until I came to the midwest.

 

[jdkid]

Hi ya
yep moveing them after wrapping is a prob the bales are shorter ,kinda wrap ya arms around them bout 2-2 1/2 feet long and have to hit the scales at over 65Lb or they don't turn on the wraper ,a few guys stack them on pallets and then swrink wrap them for eaz of moveing ..as with any wrapped hay mice can stuff it realy fast by holing the plastic and letting air in ..there are alot of diffrent ways hay is sold here bale /tonne/dry matter and also MJ .small bales most common per bale others pay on amount in the bale of dry matter ..
catch ya
JD Kid

 

[utahmule]

Out here all I see is by the ton. By the bale seems like kind of a crap shoot.

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

Cowboydoc

Can you think of any reason for stacking the round bales? Theres a guy here who hayed an old farm and stacked his bales 2 high. The bottom bale is stood on end and the top bale is laid on its side on top so the whole thing makes a letter "T". I've never seen anyone else do it, everybody else just leaves em lay or moves them to one corner of the field. At first I thought maybe it was to keep the bales drier, but now I'm not sure that would work. Seems like the top bale would still get the same amount of water on it and the bottom bale would really soak it up. Makes the place look like Balehenge. Is this guy just an artist?

SHF

 

[cowboydoc]

Yea it must be the West Utahmule. You get to the midwest and it's all by the bale, even roundbales.

 

[cowboydoc]

SHF,
I can see no reason for doing it that way. I stack my bales but I stack them so that they all have the wrap facing up so that they shed water better. I have about 300 of them that stack up over the summer for feeding in the winter so I try to take up as little space as possible. I can't see any reason to T them though.

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

Cowboydoc

These aren't wrapped. I've seen a few of the wrapped ones, but most folks just roll them and drop them in the field. I've got to head over that way today and it I can remember, I'll try to snag a picture.

SHF