start picking own silage?

simx

hi lads,
up untill 2 years ago we got a contractor in this year he is 113.5 all in an acre
i got a wagon in this last and this year,this year in i mowed with 6ft mower,he raked and picked an i pushed up with push off rake i got lend of,worked ou roughly 65e acre all in including diesel for myself,the question im wondering is am i mad in thinking of buying my own silage equipment? i have 3 tractors,one 90hp one 75 quite old and one 50hp wheat would ye think of this setup

mower 8ft maybe? 2500e?
harvester jf 800? 1500?
trailer 1000?
push off rake 500e? i can get lend of 1 for first few years

am i mad to be putting more hardship on myself? brakeages etc.?
it would be quite handy to do it when you want,labour is another thing to be included and how easy i could be to get any opinons appreciated

grazeaway

Reckon your mad there.
How much silage are you looking at cutting?
Will you have the labour available?
Those tractors seem a bit small for silage. I remember when we did double chop back in the day. A ford 7600 harvesting, another drawing the trailers and a 7000 on the buck rake, I remember it took a few days to do 30 acres.
Cutting silage is a power hungry job.

Dont be daft

simx wrote: »

am i mad to be putting more hardship on myself? brakeages etc.?
it would be quite handy to do it when you want,labour is another thing to be included and how easy i could be to get any opinons appreciated

Your mad.

Put your money into something that'll make life easier on the farm rather than harder.
I dont know how the economics would stack up, but if the main benefit of having all that gear around the place is that you dont have to wait around then I'd say shop around when it comes to contractors.

We're lucky that we've a lot of outfits around to choose from and we'd frequently have different lads doing the 1st cut than the 2nd.
Actually last year we had two different crews doing the 2nd cut at the same time because of the narrow window we had.
My point is get a handful of contractors in line and go with the one thats available.

simx

grazeaway wrote: »

Reckon your mad there.
How much silage are you looking at cutting?
Will you have the labour available?
Those tractors seem a bit small for silage. I remember when we did double chop back in the day. A ford 7600 harvesting, another drawing the trailers and a 7000 on the buck rake, I remember it took a few days to do 30 acres.I
Cutting silage is a power hungry job.

ah be 30/40 acres I know a lad that picks up with a jf.fc 80 with a 90hp zetor and a 75 hp zetor 2 wd on pit and another 75 hp drawing
I just wanted to see what opinons were really

keep going

dont think you can do silage much cheaper than you are doing.we did sums on doing it ourselves last year and reckon that buckraking pays the best,then mowing and lastly cutting/drawing.plus you will need labour any way and he might as well drive his own gear

yellow50HX

simx wrote: »

ah be 30/40 acres I know a lad that picks up with a jf.fc 80 with a 90hp zetor and a 75 hp zetor 2 wd on pit and another 75 hp drawing
I just wanted to see what opinons were really

Another factor, is people and time. Don't forget to add in the cost of your own time and that of whoever is with you. Also small tractors can burn affair amount of juice when worked hard. Also by looking at those costs for gear you'd be buying old gear with a lot of work done, you might end up doing a lot of repairs.

jimmy G M

[QUOTE=keep going;81569236]dont think you can do silage much cheaper than you are doing.we did sums on doing it ourselves last year and reckon that buckraking pays the best,then mowing and lastly cutting/drawing.plus you will need labour any way and he might as well drive his own gear[/QUOTE]

Keep doing what you are doing If you can get silage done at €65 acre then you are doing well. Possibly upgrade your mower to cut out the tedding?

I'd say that 50 hp tractor you have isn't heavy enough so you'd have to get something more powerful if you want to go ahead with your plan.

bob charles

hoping to go back making a little pit silage next year, with a 3/4 cut system on some land I have that would be for cutting only. Would be aiming for as high quality as possible :rolleyes: I mow and tedd or else get someone to cut and sward 20ft rows if weather is real dry :rolleyes: say €20 so far. Wagon Contractor would cost €30 acre (3 acs per hour €90 an hour, 1.5 mile draw) and I put up with tractor and loader which would be handy as under no pressure so add another €10 an acre. I consider it cheap way of working but will only find out after a few goes. Would be working out at €40 per ton of DM for harvesting costs. Cant see any other way of doing it much cheaper.

garageman165

dont your wasting your time that harvester will break your heart unless u baught it new and even then after a few years it be old as someone said buy a nice fresh mower 8/10 foot with a swarther and youll be sound

yellow50HX

bob charles wrote: »

hoping to go back making a little pit silage next year, with a 3/4 cut system on some land I have that would be for cutting only. Would be aiming for as high quality as possible :rolleyes: I mow and tedd or else get someone to cut and sward 20ft rows if weather is real dry :rolleyes: say €20 so far. Wagon Contractor would cost €30 acre (3 acs per hour €90 an hour, 1.5 mile draw) and I put up with tractor and loader which would be handy as under no pressure so add another €10 an acre. I consider it cheap way of working but will only find out after a few goes. Would be working out at €40 per ton of DM for harvesting costs. Cant see any other way of doing it much cheaper.

Hope you have a good tractor and loader bob. Used to back ours up back in the day with a 7000. 'twas rough on the clutch and on the knees. Haven't seen anyone putting it up with a tractor and loader in a while the ones I did see were all big yokes. Did it for fella about 10 years ago with a 120hp Same. Tractor was fine as it had a electric shuttle but it wasn't that quick as I was using a 6 foot grape. Same guy has been using a 10 ft rake on the front linkage of a 7 seris John Deere for the last few years.

simx

yellow50HX wrote: »

Hope you have a good tractor and loader bob. Used to back ours up back in the day with a 7000. 'twas rough on the clutch and on the knees. Haven't seen anyone putting it up with a tractor and loader in a while the ones I did see were all big yokes. Did it for fella about 10 years ago with a 120hp Same. Tractor was fine as it had a electric shuttle but it wasn't that quick as I was using a 6 foot grape. Same guy has been using a 10 ft rake on the front linkage of a 7 seris John Deere for the last few years.

Saw a lad couple year ago put it up with a ts 100 and 8 ft rake seemed ok for job

yellow50HX

simx wrote: »

Saw a lad couple year ago put it up with a ts 100 and 8 ft rake seemed ok for job

what kinda size load were they pushing up? neighbour bent a tanco loader last winter loader dung after he got a 8ft bucket which was too big for the loader.

jimmy G M

yellow50HX wrote: »

what kinda size load were they pushing up? neighbour bent a tanco loader last winter loader dung after he got a 8ft bucket which was too big for the loader.

When loading on cement, turn the 4wd off!

yellow50HX

jimmy G M wrote: »

When loading on cement, turn the 4wd off!

think i'd perfer to do it on the bigger machine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FHJ-ow4LsM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGtwVioEX30&feature=related

simx

yellow50HX wrote: »

what kinda size load were they pushing up? neighbour bent a tanco loader last winter loader dung after he got a 8ft bucket which was too big for the loader.

Average size enough strautman wagon couldnt tell you.model

yellow50HX

simx wrote: »

Average size enough strautman wagon couldnt tell you.model

like the saying goes,
how do you eat an elephant?
one piece at a time!

6480

i cut my own first cut this year with my own gear and i hired a man with a jf 900 to lift the second cut as i mowed it drew it in and pushed it up , i think i ll hire this man next year to lift and i ll do the rest

yellow50HX

6480 wrote: »

i cut my own first cut this year with my own gear and i hired a man with a jf 900 to lift the second cut as i mowed it drew it in and pushed it up , i think i ll hire this man next year to lift and i ll do the rest

do you draw in a back it up your self?? or do you have a 2nd person to do that?

how long did it take you? and how many acres?

6480

yellow50HX wrote: »

do you draw in a back it up your self?? or do you have a 2nd person to do that?

how long did it take you? and how many acres?

sorry forgot , 2 of our own tractors drawing in and me on another tractor and loader pushing up , its alot easier this way , i can have all the mowing done and a bit of a wilt got aswell , apart from this year with the bad weather i have moved away from getting a good friend of mine to lift and do all with a sp as it never wilts in a 30 foot row and he s chops the hell out of it , i would have a wagon but our draw is far too long for that

yellow50HX

6480 wrote: »

sorry forgot , 2 of our own tractors drawing in and me on another tractor and loader pushing up , its alot easier this way , i can have all the mowing done and a bit of a wilt got aswell , apart from this year with the bad weather i have moved away from getting a good friend of mine to lift and do all with a sp as it never wilts in a 30 foot row and he s chops the hell out of it , i would have a wagon but our draw is far too long for that

whats a SP?

6480

yellow50HX wrote: »

whats a SP?

self propelled harvester

yellow50HX

6480 wrote: »

self propelled harvester

right so

keep going

yellow50HX wrote: »

think i'd perfer to do it on the bigger machine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FHJ-ow4LsM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGtwVioEX30&feature=related

used 80 hp last 2 years to throw it up and she did fine,100hp- this year and it is totally on top of it with the front loader.like more things its not the size thats important its what you do with it.thinking about a 8ft trailed mower(kuhn jd) and wondering how many acres a hour would she do and can you put a swather on it.it would ease the pressure to get raking done before wagon

yellow50HX

keep going wrote: »

used 80 hp last 2 years to throw it up and she did fine,100hp- this year and it is totally on top of it with the front loader.like more things its not the size thats important its what you do with it.thinking about a 8ft trailed mower(kuhn jd) and wondering how many acres a hour would she do and can you put a swather on it.it would ease the pressure to get raking done before wagon

not sure if you can get a 8ft with a swarther

6480

keep going wrote: »

used 80 hp last 2 years to throw it up and she did fine,100hp- this year and it is totally on top of it with the front loader.like more things its not the size thats important its what you do with it.thinking about a 8ft trailed mower(kuhn jd) and wondering how many acres a hour would she do and can you put a swather on it.it would ease the pressure to get raking done before wagon

u should fill the wagon in far less time with the double rows about or near half the time i ed expect all though u would need sharp knives for the volume going through it

bob charles

yellow50HX wrote: »

think i'd perfer to do it on the bigger machine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FHJ-ow4LsM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGtwVioEX30&feature=related

How ever bad the first guy is, the second guy is a waste of space. The operator is the important piece of the jigsaw when making a pit. I have seen ****e guys on massive loading shovels and good guys on limited tractors. stuck in about 10 loads of maize last week before loader arrived. wet silage would be a totally different ball game but the guy I would be hiring would only be doing 2 to 3 loads an hour with a wagon. Why do guys on youtube insist on lifting the grass onto the pit instead of pushing it up. Much easier to push up and have a nice long pit.

yellow50HX

bob charles wrote: »

How ever bad the first guy is, the second guy is a waste of space. The operator is the important piece of the jigsaw when making a pit. I have seen ****e guys on massive loading shovels and good guys on limited tractors. stuck in about 10 loads of maize last week before loader arrived. wet silage would be a totally different ball game but the guy I would be hiring would only be doing 2 to 3 loads an hour with a wagon. Why do guys on youtube insist on lifting the grass onto the pit instead of pushing it up. Much easier to push up and have a nice long pit.

yeah, your right there. when we moved to precison chop back when we had pit silage the guy on the loader was a cracker. 18ft trailers pushed up in 2 go's then he would level the pit and have it rolled and ready for the next load. would have the rake tilted down slightly and flicked it along speading out the full lift evenly as he went along.

6480

yellow50HX wrote: »

yeah, your right there. when we moved to precison chop back when we had pit silage the guy on the loader was a cracker. 18ft trailers pushed up in 2 go's then he would level the pit and have it rolled and ready for the next load. would have the rake tilted down slightly and flicked it along speading out the full lift evenly as he went along.

the man on the pit is half the saving of good silage no matter wat machine u use to bring it in

yellow50HX

buddy of mine used to do his own up to about 10 years ago. his father and uncle were fairly active then too, and his brother was still living at home. when his brother went working full time he wasnt able to be around except for weekends so twas down to the two ol lads to fill in so he parked the harvester until the summer of 2012.

when he told me he had spent the afternoon pulling it out from the back of the shed and was greasing and oiling it up and pumping up the tyres i thought he had lost the plot. actully what he was doing was using it to cut the grass as a zero grazer as he had to house the cows for a lot of the summer. the double chop worked out well for that work so he was glad he hadnt sold it years ago.

keep going

6480 wrote: »

u should fill the wagon in far less time with the double rows about or near half the time i ed expect all though u would need sharp knives for the volume going through it

you find out something everyday,i was putting 24ft in front of the wagon and i did notice that it wasnt chopping it well but never connected the two.thanks

keep going

bob charles wrote: »

How ever bad the first guy is, the second guy is a waste of space. The operator is the important piece of the jigsaw when making a pit. I have seen ****e guys on massive loading shovels and good guys on limited tractors. stuck in about 10 loads of maize last week before loader arrived. wet silage would be a totally different ball game but the guy I would be hiring would only be doing 2 to 3 loads an hour with a wagon. Why do guys on youtube insist on lifting the grass onto the pit instead of pushing it up. Much easier to push up and have a nice long pit.

better to lift than push wagon silage,you can spread it better as it tends to roll and makes lumps. got the wagon to back on to the pit for the last cut-saves a pile of revving

yellow50HX

was travelling around south africa about 10 years ago and came across some lads doing silage. always find it interesting to see how its done in different places. They had an old bulldozer pushing up the silage. Was curious so stopped to have a chat. One of the lads on the pit told me there were some lads that used silage wagons didn't use a dedicated pusher. Each tractor would have a rake on the front and would push the silage from the last load in front when it came in. The pits ended up being like a low dome and covered a huge amount of space but that wasn't a worry for them. When i asked about the effluent they kinda laughed at me as the grass was so dry there was virtually none.

grazeaway

was over in england about 2 years ago and the farmer next to place i was staying was cutting his silage. He had a mixed tillage and livestock farm. Instead of a silage wagon he had a precision chop harvester mounted on the front linkage of the tractor which blew the silage over the tractor and into the trailer behind. when the load was done he would take the load to the pit and tip it up. Had never seen this done before so went over for a look.
i asked him how come he didnt go with a wagon? he said that there was no need cos of the extra cost, he already had the big tractor with a front linkage and the trailer for the tillage work so this was another use for in during the summer. All he needed extra was the extra silage canopy for the trailer and harvester. He could get close on 18ton into his trailer. The cost of the harvester and boards was a lot less then the equivlant sized silage wagon, plus he could empty it faster. I asked him was it a problem trying to see the front and he said not really once you got used to it, he did put a big mirror on the front to look out for blockages.

i thought it was a great idea and made great use of his existing machinery.

simx

found a little cost evaluation for the wagon 2 years ago,only got him to do 13 acres just to see how it went and contractor with sp done the rest

done 13 acres in 2 goes as wasnt ready at same time,your man has no prob coming to do 4 or 5 acres

he charges 55e/ac for raking and picking

1st run(6 ac)

picking and raking@ 55e/ac (330e)
mowing 22ltres of diesel @ 0.93 cent/ltre (20.46e) (3.41e/ac)
pushing up 9 litres diesel @0.93 cent/ltre (8.37e) (1.395e/ac)

i done mowing with 6ft mower and pushinhing up with 5ft push off rake all done with 90hp tractor

total...358.83e or 59.805e/ac

2nd run(7 ac)

picking and raking @55e/ac (385e)
mowing 27 ltres @0.93 cent/ltre (25.06e) (3.58e/ac)
pushing up 18 ltres @0.93 cent/ltre (16.73e) (2.39/ac)

mowing i done myself again, ever so slightly more diesel used as bit of hill on field i presume
pushing up done by neighbour with manitou that owed me a favour as it kept pressure off me,he sent his son up which i gave him a
30e tip..which if you want to include it is (4.28e/ac)

overall 456.79e or 65.25e/ac

13 ac wagon=815.63e end of day which on average is 62.74e/ac

opposed to contractor that year was 100e + vat@13.5%
113.5 x 13=1475.5e

yellow50HX

simx wrote: »

found a little cost evaluation for the wagon 2 years ago,only got him to do 13 acres just to see how it went and contractor with sp done the rest

done 13 acres in 2 goes as wasnt ready at same time,your man has no prob coming to do 4 or 5 acres

he charges 55e/ac for raking and picking

1st run(6 ac)

picking and raking@ 55e/ac (330e)
mowing 22ltres of diesel @ 0.93 cent/ltre (20.46e) (3.41e/ac)
pushing up 9 litres diesel @0.93 cent/ltre (8.37e) (1.395e/ac)

i done mowing with 6ft mower and pushinhing up with 5ft push off rake all done with 90hp tractor

total...358.83e or 59.805e/ac

2nd run(7 ac)

picking and raking @55e/ac (385e)
mowing 27 ltres @0.93 cent/ltre (25.06e) (3.58e/ac)
pushing up 18 ltres @0.93 cent/ltre (16.73e) (2.39/ac)

mowing i done myself again, ever so slightly more diesel used as bit of hill on field i presume
pushing up done by neighbour with manitou that owed me a favour as it kept pressure off me,he sent his son up which i gave him a
30e tip..which if you want to include it is (4.28e/ac)

overall 456.79e or 65.25e/ac

13 ac wagon=815.63e end of day which on average is 62.74e/ac

opposed to contractor that year was 100e + vat@13.5%
113.5 x 13=1475.5e

what would the cost of your time for the mowing and backing up have added on?

simx

yellow50HX wrote: »

what would the cost of your time for the mowing and backing up have added on?

what ever it added on my own labour would hardly amount to 659.87e
as bob charles once said when did a farmeer ever take "When did farmers ever take their time into account"

bob charles

simx wrote: »

what ever it added on my own labour would hardly amount to 659.87e
as bob charles once said when did a farmeer ever take "When did farmers ever take their time into account"

sure you would probably have being posting here on boards using electricity if you were not out cutting and pushing it up. The one thing with the wagon is that you can go for the very light cuts, 40 days grass growth and have a regrowth ready for grazing very quickly whereas I wouldnt ask my contractor to turn up with the SP to collect lawn clippings. Wagons will work on a per hour basis which suits this system. Majority of the time there is a ample tractor on the farm to run a 8ft disc mower and get a tedder and let the contractor do the rest. You gotta start looking at the price per DM and the energy difference between the ton in the pit. Silage making is the most important couple of hours on most farms and can result in thousands of euro if things are dont perfectly, which we know usually doesnt happen but we have to try and strive to this

yellow50HX

bob charles wrote: »

sure you would probably have being posting here on boards using electricity if you were not out cutting and pushing it up. The one thing with the wagon is that you can go for the very light cuts, 40 days grass growth and have a regrowth ready for grazing very quickly whereas I wouldnt ask my contractor to turn up with the SP to collect lawn clippings. Wagons will work on a per hour basis which suits this system. Majority of the time there is a ample tractor on the farm to run a 8ft disc mower and get a tedder and let the contractor do the rest. You gotta start looking at the price per DM and the energy difference between the ton in the pit. Silage making is the most important couple of hours on most farms and can result in thousands of euro if things are dont perfectly, which we know usually doesnt happen but we have to try and strive to this

which is why it makes more sense to get a contractor with good gear and good know how to make good silage if you have neither the knowhow, machinry or labour to do it your self. not much good to you if you save €1000 on your harvesting bill only to spend twice as much or more on sulpumenting poor silage and waste come winter time.

yellow50HX

simx wrote: »

what ever it added on my own labour would hardly amount to 659.87e
as bob charles once said when did a farmeer ever take "When did farmers ever take their time into account"

never under estimate your own time. if your farming fulltime you can say that its part of your job, if your working off farm and need to take time off (cant always get done on a saturday or evening after work) then this should be factored in too. If your earning 15-20 €/hr off farm then this is how you should cost it. If your using a familly member this should also be factored in too. The idea of getting soemone else to do the work is so you can use your time elsewhere (feeding cattle, fencing, milking cows, working for the man, etc). if you earn more in work then your paying the contractor then its a no brainer.

bob charles

yellow50HX wrote: »

which is why it makes more sense to get a contractor with good gear and good know how to make good silage if you have neither the knowhow, machinry or labour to do it your self. not much good to you if you save €1000 on your harvesting bill only to spend twice as much or more on sulpumenting poor silage and waste come winter time.

Agreed but most guys have a tractor and mower on farm already for topping etc. Allows you to mow when suits you. If you have an off-farm job this obviously will change things entirely. Im of the opinion that an farm making a resonable few acres of silage should own their own tedder to enable proper wilting, Silage dries F all sitting in rows. Contractors dont worry too much about quality.

Reminds me of the old saying "two much bad silage was better than half enough good silage":D

Timmaay

bob charles wrote: »

Contractors dont worry too much about quality.

Which is why I tell mine straight out what I want done, how long to wilt, I let him know if I think the chap on the buckrake is doing a rubbish job and putting in too much at once etc! My contractor is getting too big a cheque off me at the end of the silage to ignore my requests, and if I wasn't happy with the service, I'd be changing contractors!

I'm under wayyy to much pressure as is in rolling/covering the pits etc after the silage goes in to even consider having myown setup, alongside all the hassle of keeping that machinery running/depreciation/paying myown hours etc. If I attempted to take it on, I'd most certainly be sacrificing other areas, like watching the cows etc.

Us farmers far too often seem to have the blinkers on when it comes to valuing ourown time, we are all guilty of doing it. We take on some task ourselves that we thought at the time would definitely save ourselves money, but we don't seem to ever allow for slippage etc, on hindsight what looked like a good idea just ended up hours of extra hardship for no benefit, but it can be hard to swallow our pride and admit that we were wrong ha!

vincenzolorenzo

bob charles wrote: »

How ever bad the first guy is, the second guy is a waste of space. The operator is the important piece of the jigsaw when making a pit. I have seen ****e guys on massive loading shovels and good guys on limited tractors. stuck in about 10 loads of maize last week before loader arrived. wet silage would be a totally different ball game but the guy I would be hiring would only be doing 2 to 3 loads an hour with a wagon. Why do guys on youtube insist on lifting the grass onto the pit instead of pushing it up. Much easier to push up and have a nice long pit.

Not many tractors would be able to push a full load like a loading shovel can. Sure it doesn't really matter either way, once the grass is spread out evenly and well rolled thats the main thing

royalmeath

Its all well and good valuing your own time, the bottom line is you dont have to write a cheque to anyone for doing
something on your own time. Add in the fact alot of farmers love going out and knocking a meadow. Its the big child in us
getting to play with our toys for one day in the year.

dzer2

I value my time very highly. around 30 euros an hour for every hour worked. The thing is a lot on here are talking about using their time to do other things on the farm. No matter what happens I look at the cattle 3 times a day and spend about 20 minutes in the fields of sheds with them at a time just to watch. This takes up about 2 and half hours a day other things that have to be done are in summer topping fertilizing silage making dung and slurry. Purchasing and sale of cattle maintainence of machinery if needed. In winter there is hedge cutting and fencing and slurry if needed as well. I have seen some of these farmers who use contractors needing time to do other jobs talking in the coop for 2 hours and lounging around the mart 2 days a week. While these need to be done there is no way that you would have to go to the coop every day. Its more important that I get an hour to go see the kids playing sport and the little ones dancing feis than arse around the mart or coop half the day. I have not fed meal to the cows in 20 years since I started to make my own silage. I dont have fields ploughed spreading slurry or dung not even this year. Most people dont actually plan the day and end up in a panic at 6 in the evening with half the work done and then dont finish until midnight.

Markcheese

A guy I used to work for does his own baled silage.. Small kit to suit his 95 hp tractor... Mows,rakes, bales , draws,wraps and stacks the lot himself...but he has a clover system and just closes the paddocks as they get strong... Great sillage though and finishes cattle on grass and sillage alone...

yellow50HX

dzer2 wrote: »

I value my time very highly. around 30 euros an hour for every hour worked. The thing is a lot on here are talking about using their time to do other things on the farm. No matter what happens I look at the cattle 3 times a day and spend about 20 minutes in the fields of sheds with them at a time just to watch. This takes up about 2 and half hours a day other things that have to be done are in summer topping fertilizing silage making dung and slurry. Purchasing and sale of cattle maintainence of machinery if needed. In winter there is hedge cutting and fencing and slurry if needed as well. I have seen some of these farmers who use contractors needing time to do other jobs talking in the coop for 2 hours and lounging around the mart 2 days a week. While these need to be done there is no way that you would have to go to the coop every day. Its more important that I get an hour to go see the kids playing sport and the little ones dancing feis than arse around the mart or coop half the day. I have not fed meal to the cows in 20 years since I started to make my own silage. I dont have fields ploughed spreading slurry or dung not even this year. Most people dont actually plan the day and end up in a panic at 6 in the evening with half the work done and then dont finish until midnight.

well said, agree with a lot of that. however you shouldnt dismiss the social aspect of going to the co-op and mart, I know a number of farmers for whom these are very important parts of their day. its not healthy to have only conversation you have on daily basis is with the sheepdog. Like you said its good to have time for the family but not everyone has someone to talk to at home, and a lot of lads don't go to the pub as much either.

Find it a bit worrying that so many people don't thrust their contractors to do a good job. We have built up very good relationships with the guys we use and its good to be able to thrust the lad to do it right as its mostly the same lads here each time.

Would luv to be in a position to have my own mower to cut the silage and hay. Might look at getting a decent mower next year. paid contractor about €600 this year for mowing. If I buy a decent 2nd hand yoke for say €6k that's a 10 year payback and that's not including diesel, repairs and maintenance and my own time. It may be very convienent to be able to cut before the contractor arrives but my lad always sends the mower a day or so before the baler and wrapper as I want at least 24hrs wilting.

Insp. Harry Callahan

We would cut about 40 acre of pit silage every year. Mow it with our own 9ft Krone mower conditioner(cost 3000 euro 6years ago),
Get a guy in with a silage wagon to lift it,he does a good job of it
Then we buckrake it ourselves. our tractors are 125hp and 90 hp
Costs around 35 euro/acre for wagon, and about 10/15 acre for diesel for our own work. Takes about 1 and half - 2 days
Total 45 -50euro per acre.

keep going

Insp. Harry Callahan wrote: »

We would cut about 40 acre of pit silage every year. Mow it with our own 9ft Krone mower conditioner(cost 3000 euro 6years ago),
Get a guy in with a silage wagon to lift it,he does a good job of it
Then we buckrake it ourselves. our tractors are 125hp and 90 hp
Costs around 35 euro/acre for wagon, and about 10/15 acre for diesel for our own work. Takes about 1 and half - 2 days
Total 45 -50euro per acre.

g wizz i pay 60 e an acre some of the draws are awkward

freedominacup

bob charles wrote: »

Agreed but most guys have a tractor and mower on farm already for topping etc. Allows you to mow when suits you. If you have an off-farm job this obviously will change things entirely. Im of the opinion that an farm making a resonable few acres of silage should own their own tedder to enable proper wilting, Silage dries F all sitting in rows. Contractors dont worry too much about quality.

Reminds me of the old saying "two much bad silage was better than half enough good silage":D

Don't get too hung up on DM if you are aiming at high 70's+ DMD silage. The higher DM won't have that big an impact on intakes. We used to help a neighbour with a small contracting outfit years ago. He was on a similar system to us with regards to cow type, milking season etc so we had similar requirements from silage. We generally were the first two jobs he did each year as we both wanted top quality silage. One year in particular was fairly broken he cut the end of the first fine day after 15th May and the mower came to us the next afternoon. The harvester was a couple of hours behind the mower. Silages were identical 81-82DMD, around 11.5ME good protein. Only difference was DM aound 19% for him ours was 23/24%. On the same keenan diet that winter we had almost identical forage intakes of 13kgDM on I'd say 60/40 maize to grass split. Our extra DM didn't do anything for intakes. If we had gone for higher DM and missed the window because of it I'm pretty sure either intakes or performance would have been down due to lower DMD.

stop thelights

freedominacup wrote: »

Don't get too hung up on DM if you are aiming at high 70's+ DMD silage. The higher DM won't have that big an impact on intakes. We used to help a neighbour with a small contracting outfit years ago. He was on a similar system to us with regards to cow type, milking season etc so we had similar requirements from silage. We generally were the first two jobs he did each year as we both wanted top quality silage. One year in particular was fairly broken he cut the end of the first fine day after 15th May and the mower came to us the next afternoon. The harvester was a couple of hours behind the mower. Silages were identical 81-82DMD, around 11.5ME good protein. Only difference was DM aound 19% for him ours was 23/24%. On the same keenan diet that winter we had almost identical forage intakes of 13kgDM on I'd say 60/40 maize to grass split. Our extra DM didn't do anything for intakes. If we had gone for higher DM and missed the window because of it I'm pretty sure either intakes or performance would have been down due to lower DMD.

In our place we always cut our silage at the end of may as was the same this year. That one advantage of cutting your own silage is cutting it earlier and spreading less fert than concentrating on it to getting it to bulk for the SP.

our DMD would be round 72. What kind of savings in terms of ration/maize/ beet (we also feed this to our winter milking herd) if you were able to save nice leafy grass earlier and get 80 DMD. Can anyone point out where I can find out this info? Nutrition is an area i wish i have alot more knowledge on!!

revsperminute

How are the men.. long time viewer first time poster.. Just going to fill ye in on our set up here.. herd of about 40 suckler cows and followers from that to 18 month olds sold as store cattle...around 100 sheep aswell.. weather playing hell with them this year. As regards the silage we must be doing some thing right as it has worked for the past 20 odd years... We have good quality silage every year with a little waste but thats down to sealing around the walls.. dont know how or what to do but its always a problem and bugs me no end when the pit is open.. any suggestions would be great with regards this.. We have been picking 50 acres of first cut and 10 of 2nd cut with two small wagons takes a day and a half for the first cut and about 3 hours for the 2nd cut... A contractor mows for us and he is very flexible and comes when we want.. try get it down for a day to wilt and normally cut 2nd week in june.. not this year however... didnt chance leaving it down for a day.. started picking once the mower was done in the first field.. twas tricky but we got it done.. We also baled about 50 bales but theres 30 of them already gone with the bad weather.. have started feeding straw thru the pit silage to save on feed and the cattle seem to be lappin it up.. I wouldnt be sure on figures regards the DM or DMD of the silage but its nice silage and the cattle are loving it. Havnt fed any of the sheep silage yet they are on a 4in1 ration mix will see when they are housed how they manage the silage.. have them on reseeded grass at the moment not a lot left but have organised ground off a neighbour which is good for the next two months.