Baled Silage

polod

Howy ye'z


Im Just finished the second cut silage bales, which was a quality crispy golden colour, this was mow'n with a rotary mower and tedded(turned) straight away after with a hay-bob wilted for 1 day, turned that day and baled on the third day(no rain),

My first cut was in the first days of June the contractor mowed this with a conditioner mower, wilted for one day and baled on the third day(no rain).

I always find my first cut is never as good as colour( darker ) quality and always is wetter, Mainly due to the fact the grass mow'n with a conditioner never drys apart from the grass on the top of the sward IMO,

Now my contractor goes nuts if i mention the haybob or rotary to him
But Im always fond of fairly dry silage of around 25% DM.



So Im just wounder what are your opnions of using a conditioner mower for bale silage?

What is your quality like ? are most of ye'r bales fairly 'wet' stuff like I'm finding?

Thanks

redzerologhlen

polod wrote: »

Howy ye'z


Im Just finished the second cut silage bales, which was a quality crispy golden colour, this was mow'n with a rotary mower and tedded(turned) straight away after with a hay-bob wilted for 1 day, turned that day and baled on the third day(no rain),

My first cut was in the first days of June the contractor mowed this with a conditioner mower, wilted for one day and baled on the third day(no rain).

I always find my first cut is never as good as colour( darker ) quality and always is wetter, Mainly due to the fact the grass mow'n with a conditioner never drys apart from the grass on the top of the sward IMO,

Now my contractor goes nuts if i mention the haybob or rotary to him
But Im always fond of fairly dry silage of around 25% DM.



So Im just wounder what are your opnions of using a conditioner mower for bale silage?

What is your quality like ? are most of ye'r bales fairly 'wet' stuff like I'm finding?

Thanks

Assuming you can get 3 dry days in a row in this country we cut with ten foot conditioner day one, rake into 30 foots mid day 2 and bale on the evening of day 3 and it does be in cracking form. The rotary is ok if you rake it but the haybob has a habit of making rows like a lumpy rope.

Farmer Pudsey

My first cut was in the first days of June the contractor mowed this with a conditioner mower, wilted for one day and baled on the third day(no rain)
Sounds like your second cut is more like hayage has it also alot of stem? Your first cut may be very leafy mower conditioner silage/Hay will always wilt faster than drum mower I would not worry about colour put a bale of each in front of cattle see which they finish first.

6480

polod wrote: »

Howy ye'z


Im Just finished the second cut silage bales, which was a quality crispy golden colour, this was mow'n with a rotary mower and tedded(turned) straight away after with a hay-bob wilted for 1 day, turned that day and baled on the third day(no rain),

My first cut was in the first days of June the contractor mowed this with a conditioner mower, wilted for one day and baled on the third day(no rain).

I always find my first cut is never as good as colour( darker ) quality and always is wetter, Mainly due to the fact the grass mow'n with a conditioner never drys apart from the grass on the top of the sward IMO,

Now my contractor goes nuts if i mention the haybob or rotary to him
But Im always fond of fairly dry silage of around 25% DM.



So Im just wounder what are your opnions of using a conditioner mower for bale silage?

What is your quality like ? are most of ye'r bales fairly 'wet' stuff like I'm finding?

Thanks

i bale lot of stuff after the haybobs if its turned out right and rowed up at the right width of row ie ( the right revs and forward speed of the tractor on the haybob ) its fine to bale after, its the only true way of making good silage onlu thing is its only worth while doing if u get the weather

polod

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

My first cut was in the first days of June the contractor mowed this with a conditioner mower, wilted for one day and baled on the third day(no rain)
Sounds like your second cut is more like hayage has it also alot of stem? Your first cut may be very leafy mower conditioner silage/Hay will always wilt faster than drum mower I would not worry about colour put a bale of each in front of cattle see which they finish first.

Second cut would have been in the first or second week in august can't remember, so there wouldn't have been much stem,

polod

6480 wrote: »

i bale lot of stuff after the haybobs if its turned out right and rowed up at the right width of row ie ( the right revs and forward speed of the tractor on the haybob ) its fine to bale after, its the only true way of making good silage onlu thing is its only worth while doing if u get the weather

Yeah it seems a bit old school methods these days but have to agree quality seems to be improved after turning the grass quicker,even drying...would many people up up your way still be using the hay bob for silage?

Tora Bora

polod wrote: »

Yeah it seems a bit old school methods these days but have to agree quality seems to be improved after turning the grass quicker,even drying...would many people up up your way still be using the hay bob for silage?

New school method right here:cool: http://www.bridgewayengineering.com/products/grass-conditioner/

bob charles

Tora Bora wrote: »

New school method right here:cool: http://www.bridgewayengineering.com/products/grass-conditioner/

having used those sward conditioners when I was a young fellow I didnt find them much good as the surface area for drying is just too small. You really need one of the "new" type tedders. The haybob was the first step up from the hand fork in the sixties, now you boyo's have to move on from the haybob. Get it cut and spread out straight away and then sward into rows when it has drieded. I like to complete this process quick enough if the weather is right, say 24hrs. ..........says he know all who hadnt made silage for 5 yrs until last season again

Grecco

Cut two fields at the same time last June, the first the contractor cut with the conditioner mower and left for 2 days and baled on the third day.
I cut the second field with the rotary and scattered it out for a day then rowed with haybob the third.
Both fields at the same time. The Bales of the second field are far better and there's a way more feeding in them. I conclude that the silage after conditioner mower doesn't wilt as good so you end up with poorer quality silage and theres more bales with less in them

Bitten & Hisses

I have found the best thing to do is cut with the conditioner mower, opening the boards at the back to leave the swarth as wide as possible. Let it wilt for a day (maybe longer, depending on weather and how heavy the crop is), then get the contractor with a rake to rake it up to 20-foot swarths. I would always try to bale immediately after raking.
TBH, I think your issue may be with the quality of first cut silage in general from 2011 due to the rubbish weather last year in May and June.

dar31

Bitten & Hisses wrote: »

I have found the best thing to do is cut with the conditioner mower, opening the boards at the back to leave the swarth as wide as possible. Let it wilt for a day (maybe longer, depending on weather and how heavy the crop is), then get the contractor with a rake to rake it up to 20-foot swarths. I would always try to bale immediately after raking.
TBH, I think your issue may be with the quality of first cut silage in general from 2011 due to the rubbish weather last year in May and June.

+1 for bales and pit silage

Don't bale much buy always would of thought the poorer the quality the longer it would take cattle to eat them

reilig

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

I would not worry about colour put a bale of each in front of cattle see which they finish first.

Would it not make sense that the cattle would finish the least wilted bale first? Wilted bales are normally better packed and feed cattle for longer. It doesn't mean that the quality of the silage will be better though!

Farmer Pudsey

reilig wrote: »

Would it not make sense that the cattle would finish the least wilted bale first? Wilted bales are normally better packed and feed cattle for longer. It doesn't mean that the quality of the silage will be better though!

Cattle will usually finish the best silage first even if more feed in non wilted bale if they have complete access to both types of silage they will eat the best silage first.

reilig

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

Cattle will usually finish the best silage first even if more feed in non wilted bale if they have complete access to both types of silage they will eat the best silage first.

I wouldn't agree with that. How would you judge silage to be the best?
Put a wet non wilted bale in beside a dry wilted bale and the cattle will always choose the wet bale and finish it before the dry bale, even though if you tested it, it would be by far the lowest quality.

I have fed baled silage of 72dmd to a pen of 20 cows. This is wilted silage and have found that it lasted more than 20% longer than a bale of non wilted silage of 62dmd. Its to do with the amount of silage per m3. The drier it is, the more that will be in it and the longer it will last. A bale of hay will last longer than a bale of silage in similar feeding situations.

Suckler

polod wrote: »

Im Just finished the second cut silage bales, which was a quality crispy golden colour, this was mow'n with a rotary mower and tedded(turned) straight away after with a hay-bob wilted for 1 day, turned that day and baled on the third day(no rain),

So Im just wounder what are your opnions of using a conditioner mower for bale silage?

We do the same - Rotary mower, two runs of the haybob and then baled after a good bit of drying. We've bought in bales from a neighbour that had used a conditioner and baled soon after mowing and half them were gone bad - not sure if this was coincidence or bad wrapping. Out of all the bales we've done, we've only had the very odd forkful that might be gone bad.

vanderbadger

i find grass from the conditioner mower is fine so long as its given enough wilting time, i think using a mower and swarther though for a big row probably isnt great

reilig

We do 7 - 800 bales per year with a 8ft disc mower. Have upgraded the haybob to a PZ Jumbo 420 for the coming year - hopefully it will stand up to more than the PZ300. It will certainly make bigger rows (which the contractor will like). We never had a complaint from our contractor about lumps in the silage from the haybob. If you operate it at the correct pto speed and don't go at a 90 degree angle to the way that you mowed it, you won't get any lumps. I like the quality of the wilted silage too.

On the other hand we get about 100 bales cut every year with conditioner on an outfarm. If you get dry enough weather and give it 2 days on the ground, it produces nice quality chopped silage, a bit moist, but very palatable.

Too many contractors around here have the baler following the mower, giving no more than an hour of wilt and 30% more bales than there should be if it was wilted.

polod

Thanks for all the replies lads

yeah I'm glad some people agree with tedding/turning the grass.

Think I might mow all our silage this so

Yeah I find the contractors only want to suit to suit themselves....mow with conditioner = more bales etc.

my contractor complains about making uneven bales after the haybob but I think he getting greedy wanting to do the mowing

Thanks for all your views on this

jeff greene

reilig wrote: »

Too many contractors around here have the baler following the mower, giving no more than an hour of wilt and 30% more bales than there should be if it was wilted.

That's a very modest increase you're giving I think. Contractors here never do that, most have rakes now and mow it out wide to help wilting too.