How are you fixed silage wise?

Muckit

How much of yours have you done?

All? 50%?

Half done myself. The rest to do this week.
Will be v tricky with the weather:o

Anyone get any hay or planning on getting hay in a few weeks?

moy83

All done , we have plenty for all the cattle we have this year . So there will be feck all fert spread except for where we will cut a few small bales of haylage

grumpyfarmer

mowing it at the moment.... fingers crossed on tomorrow...

poor farmer

less than half started 1st June stop start stop start no wilt ,heavy bales,opening and closing pit,
Cant seem to get a couple of middling days together
Made some pit and bales last Thursday ,now the ground is getting poor

Bizzum

Hoping to knock some this week. Will see how tomorrow looks and make a decision.

stanflt

ready to cut second cut at the end of the week:) weather permitting

Juniorhurler

1st cut in the pit and 150 bales made as well. Last 5 loads went into the pit after a good shower. Bales got a couple days wilting so hopeful that both will be good enough.

sh1tstirrer

Muckit wrote: »

How much of yours have you done?

All? 50%?

Half done myself. The rest to do this week.
Will be v tricky with the weather:o

Anyone get any hay or planning on getting hay in a few weeks?

Hay? Are you serious?

bogman_bass

still water lying in places. been ready to cut for the past two weeks:mad:

jimmy G M

300 wraps done at this stage. 32 acres left, 20 well fit to cut weather permitting. Remaining 12 acres not ready till july. Will try for hay with some of it. Probably spend a week turning the cr*p out of it and then end up wrapping it anyway - just like last year. :mad:

John_F

stanflt wrote: »

ready to cut second cut at the end of the week:) weather permitting

can you give us an idea of your system mr Fowlerstown?? like is silage marked for 1st cut grazed in spring or not, how much slurry and fert put out per ac for 1st cut, and then how much ye put out for 2nd cut? and also do ye throw out any additive.. or can ye with the trailed machine?

Muckit

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

Hay? Are you serious?

Deadly. Cheapest quality roughage for a large range of stock. I know the weather the weather..

John_F

Muckit wrote: »

Deadly. Cheapest roughage if the weather is right.

straw? soya hulls? beet pulp? fpr what you could get from an acre other wise is it cheap?

Muckit

I would have to buy all those in and wouldn't have the ways to store or feed them. Also associated vermin probs.

Hay is cheap if you realise you don't need a 120hp 4wd to work a haybob

grumpyfarmer

grumpyfarmer wrote: »

mowing it at the moment.... fingers crossed on tomorrow...

Hmmm so much for crossed fingers...

bbam

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

Hay? Are you serious?

Saw hay made in Redhills there three/four weeks ago, thought he was mad to try but it was gathered up fine.

We're one cut silage ourselves and decided to graze late. Will make bales towards the end of July.

F.D

Have approx 22 acres to pit, 16 was grazed and closed up for silage, the remainder is strong paddocks, how many tons per acre is everyone getting or what would be the average?

snowman707

we have 40 acres in pit & about 100 wraps, about another 30 ac for pit in july and will try to gather about another 150 bales , have a fair bit left over since last year

my son mowed 26 acres of new grass yesterday for a customer to be baled to morrow , it is hilly and after to day's down pour he reckons there is no way the fusion will travel on it

stanflt

John_F wrote: »

can you give us an idea of your system mr Fowlerstown?? like is silage marked for 1st cut grazed in spring or not, how much slurry and fert put out per ac for 1st cut, and then how much ye put out for 2nd cut? and also do ye throw out any additive.. or can ye with the trailed machine?

normally graze the silage ground and have it closed by the end of february- will strip graze it so after i graze it can get about 5000gals of watery slurry from the overground tank(i never spread directly from underground pits as consistancy is poor) will spread 1bag urea in late feb followed by 1.5bags can in march

after first cut it will get 2000gals watery slurry and 3bags cut swarth- same if doing 3rd cut

dont use additives as i feel they are a waste of money- cut early and hope for 78+dmd with protein 15+ %

bob charles

have fed about 10-20% of first cut already, admittedly I make very little silage but crazy year. had second cut ready to mow last week but there are ownership problems with the rented land it was grown on. doubt I will get in to cut it now

1chippy

30 acres of a very heavy and starting to get too heavy silage to be dropped hopefully wednesday(weather permitting). about 8 for Bales that we might leave for a week or two. doubt we will get much of wilt this year but serious bulk hopefully it wont be complete sh1te.

whelan1

did 90 acres pit silage last week. this included some paddocks.. hope to do about 20 acres second cut and about 20 acres for bales in july, then wholecrop in september with 10 acres of grass silage on top:)

keep going

23 acres last monday week and 18 ready next week but the contractor is having an awful time trying to get stuff done.theres some desperate wet patchs in feilds and stuff is starting to bulk

JohnBoy

what's the group's view's on second cut silage?

will there be much demand for it?

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

Muckit wrote: »

Hay is cheap if you realise you don't need a 120hp 4wd to work a haybob

a 5 gallons of diesel goes a long way in a mf 35!

Dozer1

80% done, plenty heavy bales but at least they are in now,
one of those years where a fusion bale puts the loader under pressure to lift it

when we get the indian summer I'll try and get 30 or 40 round bales of hay done.

josephsoap

Dozer1 wrote: »

80% done, plenty heavy bales but at least they are in now,
one of those years where a fusion bale puts the loader under pressure to lift it

when we get the indian summer I'll try and get 30 or 40 round bales of hay done.

Just as a mattet of interest, what kind of a tractor / loader are you using 2 lift the fusion bales ?

Dozer1

2wd ursus and tanco loader, piled 2 or 3 high, no bother with dry bales but this year only went 2 high, tearing the ass out of it but its only for 1 day, rest of the year it gets tlc

josephsoap

Dozer1 wrote: »

2wd ursus and tanco loader, piled 2 or 3 high, no bother with dry bales but this year only went 2 high, tearing the ass out of it but its only for 1 day, rest of the year it gets tlc

Same as myself using a light 2WD tractor to pile them up too, lucky enough my contractor has a krone baler

What HP is your Ursus ?

I'm just woundering what kind of power you would need to comfortly lift a wet McHale bale with a front loader :eek:

Graces7

Just been watching the fields around us where the team have taken the sileage in that they cut yesterday. Expert and fascinating to watch and it looks as if they have it all in now. Before the next deluge due later today

PatQfarmer

Still looking at one paddock stopped for bales. Didn't have the courage to cut it...glad I didn't:)
Old lad knocked grass Sunday, ranked it up to bale it this morning, the heavens opened...It's still there:(

tismesoitis

Just walked the silage ground this evening looking great should have d 2nd cut in in 3-4 weeks.Growth has been serious despite the weather.

bogman_bass

Couldnt get a contractor for love nor money past 2v days. usual lad said he'd need 10 balers to do all the work in the 2 dry days:mad:

ryanp3

all over for another year:D 150 bales last week ,35 ac cut on Monday evening late, Contrator late comming yesterday due to baling/cutting elsewhere:(. worked through the night on the second longest day of the year finished at 2am, glad they stayed at it to finish it, finished of the pit this morning helped covering all done by 12 pm then the heavens opened:)

Bizzum

bogman_bass wrote: »

Couldnt get a contractor for love nor money past 2v days. usual lad said he'd need 10 balers to do all the work in the 2 dry days:mad:

We found the same so left it till next week, weather permitting!

Muckit

was to cut more for bales Monday evening but it started lashing and too short of a window I thought to cut Tuesday morning and bale before the rain Yesterday so left it til early next week.

All this holdup is eating into aftergrass :mad:

porter shark

started baling tuesday evening, didn't knock off the tractor till 1:00 yesterday, 10 minutes before the rain. sweet, it'd be in some state now.

reilig

I have nothing done and happy enough that way yet. My meadows are only just fit to cut. I'm trying to operate on a lower input system, so this year, I grazed all of the meadows before taking them up for silage. Earliest meadows weren't taken up until the first week in April, latedt meadow taken up on 1st of june. Everything got a light coat of slurry and 1 bag to the acre of fertilizer (Mostly urea).

In fairness, it worked out well enough for me. My heavy land has not been dry enough to cut for the last 3 weeks, thankfully it hasn't been heavy enough either. If we get good weather in the next week, I can cut, if not, I can wait for up to 2 weeks without reducing quality too much.

In fairness, I'm not milking cows or finishing cattle so the quality hasn't to be too high. I will have 100 bales of high quality stuff to feed weinlings that I keep over the winter, but high quality silage for suckler cows only makes them fat and leads to hard calving.

Have approximately 500 bales of first cut to make between now and the end of july. Normally do about 150 to 200 bales at a time. Will be spreading pig slurry on the first meadows that I cut (reseeded 2 years ago) in order to try to have a second cut by the middle of august!!

Muckit

reilig wrote: »

I'm trying to operate on a lower input system, so this year, I grazed all of the meadows before taking them up for silage.

I started doing the same the last two years, following advice from boards and IFJ. It was an excellent decision. (some) cattle out earlier and better quality and quantity of silage AND I found that it doesn't effect cutting date significantly.

By the time cattle have ate silage ground (which is usually better ground than grazing), there is a pick on the grazing ground and grass isn't getting ahead of stock.

foreman450

Its promised bad til the end of this month. Serious bales per acre this year. And heavy bales as well.

Muckit

Feck it, I'm chancin' it Monday regardless!

blue5000

Still nothing cut here yet, hoping next week but the weather piss forecast looks bad for sunday and monday is showery. Like Relig all my ground was grazed, some of it grazed twice so most of it is only coming fit now.

foreman450

Muckit wrote: »

Feck it, I'm chancin' it Monday regardless!

A lot to be said for having your own gear. When we get the weather contracters will be up the walls. You will bale when they tell you to bale.

foreman450

Anyone know what sort of hp needed to run a baler with wrapper in tow? I have a same 100.6

grumpyfarmer

foreman450 wrote: »

Anyone know what sort of hp needed to run a baler with wrapper in tow? I have a same 100.6

A neighbour tows a prone combi pack with a same silver 110 and a friend used to contract bale with a claas rollant + mchale hs2000 on a valmet 8150, 120 hp i think..

grumpyfarmer

35 acres in the pit and 162 bales in. 118 of which came off 7 acres!!

GERMAN ROCKS

grumpyfarmer wrote: »

35 acres in the pit and 162 bales in. 118 of which came off 7 acres!!

why didnt you make pit of that 7 acres instead. surely it would have been a lot cheaper.

grumpyfarmer

GERMAN ROCKS wrote: »

grumpyfarmer wrote: »

35 acres in the pit and 162 bales in. 118 of which came off 7 acres!!

why didnt you make pit of that 7 acres instead. surely it would have been a lot cheaper.

It was supposed to be for the pit but couldn't fit it, the pit is already up in the clouds...

Charlie Charolais

All done for this year, cut Tuesday morning, baled, wrapped & stacked yesterday morning before the rain! It's been raining here non stop since lunch time yesterday. Had some 2011 bales bought since this spring, they look real good value now

moy83

Charlie Charolais wrote: »

All done for this year, cut Tuesday morning, baled, wrapped & stacked yesterday morning before the rain! It's been raining here non stop since lunch time yesterday. Had some 2011 bales bought since this spring, they look real good value now

Oh i'd say hay wont be too cheap next year

bob charles

moy83 wrote: »

Oh i'd say hay wont be too cheap next year

there will be a pile of hay saved when the day comes