Thinking about getting set up for silage hay.

art · Mar 25, 2014

High moisture is more tender on the mouths of the animals so they enjoy chewing on it longer. In our area trying to get dry hay is a problem but hi-moisture is easier on the time. Many farmers mow and harvest the same day rather then having to wait a couple of days to dry the hay.

slowzuki · Mar 25, 2014

Here the guys making balage cut in the morning, ted once at noon, cut for the next day in the afternoon, rake at 4 or 5 pm, bale and wrap that night. They can start their first cut on time where us dry hay guys are stuck idle. They can even get it put up with 2 cloudy days and some tedding.

Easily get in 3 cuts where the rest of us dry hay guys struggle to get in 2.

Equipmentpro99 · Mar 27, 2014

slowzuki said:
Here the guys making balage cut in the morning, ted once at noon, cut for the next day in the afternoon, rake at 4 or 5 pm, bale and wrap that night. They can start their first cut on time where us dry hay guys are stuck idle. They can even get it put up with 2 cloudy days and some tedding.

Easily get in 3 cuts where the rest of us dry hay guys struggle to get in 2.

Thats what im wanting to do is get my hay up faster and hopefully get an extra cutting. I've been baling dry hay for 13 years and i hate having to wait on hay to dry, the weather to break, etc... I always put up hi quality hay (when the weather cooperates) and my cows do great on it, but if hi moisture really is better than dry hay, i might be able to feed them less, sell more of my dry hay or have a few more cows.
Has anyone done a test on hi moisture and dry hay from the same field to compare tdn?

tessiers · Mar 30, 2014

We keep ours for 1 season only. Have fed a few older ones in a pinch but there is definitely more waste. Cut as soon as dew is gone and bale by nightfall. I don't think your ganna feed any less grass, about the same volume, more tonnage. I have baled and fed both from the same field but I don't test content so no number there. It is definitely easy to make, weather is the thing, they can all predict today, 3 days is a little harder to judge.

zionview · Mar 30, 2014

High moisture hay will be somewhat higher in protein, due to handling it at a higher moisture. There is less leaf shatter and loss, particularly in legumes. Two more reasons cows seem to do better on silage: it is more palatable at a higher moisture, and the fermentation process is equivalent to being partially digested for them. The last eight years we had dairy cattle, we fed no dry feed to the lactating cows, only corn silage, haylage, and high moisture corn until it ran out, then dry corn. We fed a total mixed ration and I noticed the cows could eat more pounds dry matter in a day eating fermented feed. That translated into more milk production at a slightly higher cost of making feed. I don't know if the higher intake of feed will pay with beef, or not, but you will love making higher quality feed on a much higher percentage of your crop!

southerndeere · Apr 1, 2014

If its to high of moisure cut it an chop it for silage has always worked for us

Equipmentpro99 · Apr 8, 2014

Well after looking at the extra cost of equipment, wrap etc I'm just going to stick with dry hay for now. Bought a really nice 467 JD with 5k bales, never has been rained on! In afew years i might look into putting up hi-moisture hay or silage. I might start off chopping silage and put it in a pit, it sure would be cheaper than buying a wrapper, silage baler, and the wrap.

farmer2009 · Apr 9, 2014

Had a client that was chopping corn for silage to put in a pit. Had a 150hp tractor chopping 1 row at 1mph said chopper was eating tractor. Had a guy come in and do it custom had a self-propelled chopper 6 rows at 7 mph. But I think he said he was running 640 hp.

A neighbor was putting up haylage (silage in a bale) decided to go to blowing it into bags. Bought all equipment used it one year learned he could roll it and wrap it faster. Haven't seen silage wagons at his place since first of the year. Will see what he does this year.

RickB · Apr 9, 2014

farmer2009 said:
Had a client that was chopping corn for silage to put in a pit. Had a 150hp tractor chopping 1 row at 1mph said chopper was eating tractor.

That is absolutely absurd. The chopper must have been very, very much out of adjustment AND dull. You can't grow corn big & thick enough to make 150 HP work hard cutting 1 row at 1 MPH with a properly adjusted machine. You might get some of these folks to buy in, but I've cut wayyy to much silage to swallow that.