Hay/silage question

[schmism]

The next time you go by stop in and say hi. Most farmers are glad to show people around and answer some questions. If you catch them at the right time they may even let you run some of the tractors or at least ride along to see how the machines work.

ya i know what you mean. Not living over there full time limits the times when i come and go, but if everything works out the way we are thinking it might, ill likely be able to quite my 9-5 and do my own thing which would allow me to work as a contract driver? durring planting and harvest. I figure it would be fun and education while im still "young"

 

[jimmy1]

Actually I think the term is ensilage.

Jim

 

[N80]

I don't know why haylage has not caught on around here. My farmer friend is at a point where his endentured help (his kids) are leaving the nest and his 2000 bale a year haying operation will be soley up to him. He estimates that he looses 20-40 percent of the bale sitting outside in the weather. Plus, timing when to cut, rake and bale is a real crap shoot since spring and summer showers can occur at any time around here.

Haylage would provide a number of benefits for him. First, you can bale the hay wet. This makes it so you can bale it quicker after it is cut, makes you less dependant on weather conditions, you have to tet less and you cut down on losses due to weather. Second, he'd need fewer bales since most of what is in a wrapped bale will not deteriorate. That means less total acreage to maintain, fertilize, cut, rake and bale. Third, with wrapped bales, he wouldn't need a haybarn...which he doesn't have anyway.

The drawbacks would be the cost of the bale wrapper and plastic wrap. The disposal of the plastic wrap and the time spent wrapping each bale offsets some of the other time gains.

Its a real balancing act in terms of return on investment in both time and money.

 

[jimmy1]

A balancing act for sure. Farming is no different than any other business and depending on the type of farming will determine how one approaches haying methods. If you have beef cows for the purpose an annual calf crop you may only want to use dry hay as the high protein in ensilage would likely be too strong, but if you are feed to a dairy herd for max. milk production or feed lot steers that is a different storey as to how and the cost of producing high quality feed as efficiently as possible. My father sold his dairy farm a few years ago but still feeds steers with feed from sealed silos, in this case the input must be dryed some what. If you put green feed in it will come out mush so you try for a mid point between green and dry to produce the best quality feed. A bunk or pit can handle greener input and will be less expensive to erect but maybe more expensive to manage?? you will likely need to start machinery daily to feed the stuff. Decisions!

Jim

 

[daTeacha]

Here in the dairy capital of Ohio, there are about equal numbers of guys who use the bags and those who use bunkers. It doesn't seem to matter much about the size of the operation. Two of the guys I know who use bunkers milk about 200 and about 700 head. Another guy who uses bags milks about 500 head. The big operators milking several thousand tend toward bunkers.

The bunkers are concrete boxes open on one end and on top. They're about 12 or 15 feet deep, and at least 100 feet on a side. The machinery the guy milking 200 uses for the bunker is a mining size big yellow Caterpillar Front End Loader. Another neighbor uses the same model machine in his sandstone quarry. The only work the one on the farm does is handling feed unless we get a lot of snow.