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Where to dump bad silage?

  • 01-12-2012 10:40PM
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,736 ✭✭✭


    I reckon I am going to have a right heap of rotten silage this year?

    What do lads normally do with it?


«1

Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,034 ✭✭✭Bizzum


    Dungstead?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,704 ✭✭✭✭mahoney_j


    Yeadh dungstead and throw rotten straw from calf pens etc with it then spread it on a field you plan on reseeding or else stubble


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,736 ✭✭✭20silkcut


    I thought of the dung stead alright.Its just my dungstead is my slurry pit as well. No slats. Will have to forget about agitating or sucking out of it next year so.
    You would want a fairly good muck spreader to spread rotten bales of silage I'd say?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,410 ✭✭✭bbam


    20silkcut wrote: »
    I thought of the dung stead alright.Its just my dungstead is my slurry pit as well. No slats. Will have to forget about agitating or sucking out of it next year so.
    You would want a fairly good muck spreader to spread rotten bales of silage I'd say?

    You need to get it broken up well with regular dung if you can as otherwise its very slow to break down..


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 8,570 ✭✭✭Rovi


    And keep the string/plastic/netting out of it!!! :D


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,736 ✭✭✭20silkcut


    bbam wrote: »
    You need to get it broken up well with regular dung if you can as otherwise its very slow to break down..

    I have approx 80 bales. I reckon at least 40 are pure ****e maybe the entire 80. I will be throwing fully intact round bales into the dung stead. Should I be shredding them through a diet feeder first. I don't have my own diet feeder. Would have to use a neighbours who will charge for his services.
    It cost me 1100 to make these mother****ers of bales. 2011 silage cut in August of that year very stemmy grass cut and baled in 24 hours no wilting or shaking out or nothing and rain the day before. Very pissed off. Have 15 weanlings now. I will have to buy in silage/hay to keep them going. I wonder would 20 bales get them through till February. Will have early grass closed off since late sept by then.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 931 ✭✭✭Manoffeeling


    Master oul stuff in a bog hole to keep the digger up.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 908 ✭✭✭funny man


    no wonder we are over regulated with some ejits out there, dumping organic matter into a water source. I wouldn't go wasting diesel shredding them, you were far better building them in the dungstead and let them rot.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,944 ✭✭✭✭Skerries


    outside Dail Eireann


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,232 ✭✭✭adne


    20silkcut wrote: »

    I have approx 80 bales. I reckon at least 40 are pure ****e maybe the entire 80. I will be throwing fully intact round bales into the dung stead. Should I be shredding them through a diet feeder first. I don't have my own diet feeder. Would have to use a neighbours who will charge for his services.
    It cost me 1100 to make these mother****ers of bales. 2011 silage cut in August of that year very stemmy grass cut and baled in 24 hours no wilting or shaking out or nothing and rain the day before. Very pissed off. Have 15 weanlings now. I will have to buy in silage/hay to keep them going. I wonder would 20 bales get them through till February. Will have early grass closed off since late sept by then.

    id imagine 15 weanlings would eat at a minimum a bale a day so.doubt 20 bales will get u to feb


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 931 ✭✭✭Manoffeeling


    funny man wrote: »
    no wonder we are over regulated with some ejits out there, dumping organic matter into a water source. I wouldn't go wasting diesel shredding them, you were far better building them in the dungstead and let them rot.

    And what do you think a bog is made from?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,284 ✭✭✭Figerty


    There is nothing in rotting silage to cause pollution as long as you dont put them in a watercourse! It's rotting grass, but it's slow to rot..

    Try and get some dung or straw into it to get the bacteria going. Silage doesn't rot well. Best find a corner or hole that needs filling, remove the plastic and forget about them for a few years. I put the waste silage in with the dung.
    I had 9 or 10 lads calling for dung for small gardens of spuds.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,410 ✭✭✭bbam


    Dumping anything in bogs is prohibited. Burying bales is risky as it could make its way to the water table and contaminate it. We've left the 70's well behind us now.

    Lest be sensible lads, it will need to go into a dungstead, breaking it up first will dramatically speed the process up.

    I wonder would any of the compost companies take them away for free??


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,552 ✭✭✭pakalasa


    I'd dump them in the corner of a rough piece of land. They'll rot away in time. They're no different than timber rotting away. Just take off plastic and netting nad they should be fine.
    Is it really that bad? I made bales in October once and they were fine. Did the plastic get holed or something?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,716 ✭✭✭1chippy


    a lad beside me sold his rotting bales to some lad from tipp. he was mulching them up for some form of com post as far as i know. got a tenner a bale and rid of them.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,410 ✭✭✭bbam


    1chippy wrote: »
    a lad beside me sold his rotting bales to some lad from tipp. he was mulching them up for some form of com post as far as i know. got a tenner a bale and rid of them.

    He got a good deal there.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,489 ✭✭✭epfff


    wouldnt mind meeting that guy


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,736 ✭✭✭20silkcut


    I have opened ten bales so far. They only ate one. Some of them were holed by crows and handling etc but nothing out of the ordinary. Maybe I am being pessimistic but a 1 in 10 strike so far has me worried. As I said this silage was not shaken out or turned or nothing. It was cut, left about a day and then baled. Old pasture, stemmy August grass cut in damp conditions.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,736 ✭✭✭20silkcut


    1chippy wrote: »
    a lad beside me sold his rotting bales to some lad from tipp. he was mulching them up for some form of com post as far as i know. got a tenner a bale and rid of them.

    Jaysus could ya find out who he is and put his number up here. I am in Tipp.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,269 ✭✭✭tabby aspreme


    If your putting them in with the dung break them up first, I had a full one in last years dung and it blocked the beaters on the dung spreader took an hour to get it out, @ 100€ an hour, an expensive lesson. If you could break them up into a heap and shake it up after about six weeks they would rot quickly


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,716 ✭✭✭1chippy


    when i meet up with him. he works odd hours but usually meet him a couple of times a week, so when i see him i'll ask for the no.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,163 ✭✭✭jimmy G M


    They might be any use to someone as bedding in a loose shed? Roll them out like a carpet, did this with rushes a few years ago, topped off with straw, worked fine.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,410 ✭✭✭bbam


    jimmy G M wrote: »
    They might be any use to someone as bedding in a loose shed? Roll them out like a carpet, did this with rushes a few years ago, topped off with straw, worked fine.

    Handy way to get rush seed into the manure and maybe onto fields where theyve never been before.. ;)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,163 ✭✭✭jimmy G M


    bbam wrote: »
    Handy way to get rush seed into the manure and maybe onto fields where theyve never been before.. ;)

    jez, is that where all those rushes have come from this year?:rolleyes:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 44 FarmersSon


    Really bad silage in the clamp this year - was cut down for hay but the weather never came to much so in the clamp it went. Cattle are really not fussed on it at all. Breaking my heart feeding it to them, only to end up shoveling and graping it up and dumping it into the ever expanding dungheap every few days.

    Biggest waste of a day feeding cattle ****e silage.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 11,786 ✭✭✭✭whelan1


    is it really that bad, could you put molasses or meal on it to get them to eat it?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,410 ✭✭✭bbam


    whelan1 wrote: »
    is it really that bad, could you put molasses or meal on it to get them to eat it?

    Would it be as well get it tested first?
    Encouraging them to eat poorly preserved silage could be bad for their health..


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 11,786 ✭✭✭✭whelan1


    bbam wrote: »
    Would it be as well get it tested first?
    Encouraging them to eat poorly preserved silage could be bad for their health..
    yes it should be tested but we had crap looking silage here before and they ate it- actually surprised us when we did get it tested- just because its not the right colour doesnt mean its crap


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 908 ✭✭✭funny man


    And what do you think a bog is made from?
    There is nothing in rotting silage to cause pollution as long as you dont put them in a watercourse! It's rotting grass, but it's slow to rot..

    Anything from a peatland to a marsh, bogs have a low PH 3, WHICH INCLUDE A LOW NUTRIENT LEVEL, so it's not the same organic matter as rotten silage that is high in N which in turn can cause a decrease in dissolved oxygen concentrations especially during decomposition, marsh bogs all run into the rivers and streams that surround us. Boglands are protected and rightly so, if mankind is so ignorant to their ecology then rules/directives (which go over the top) must be put in place to try and protect them.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 931 ✭✭✭Manoffeeling


    funny man wrote: »
    Anything from a peatland to a marsh, bogs have a low PH 3, WHICH INCLUDE A LOW NUTRIENT LEVEL, so it's not the same organic matter as rotten silage that is high in N which in turn can cause a decrease in dissolved oxygen concentrations especially during decomposition, marsh bogs all run into the rivers and streams that surround us. Boglands are protected and rightly so, if mankind is so ignorant to their ecology then rules/directives (which go over the top) must be put in place to try and protect them.

    But,but they use bales of straw to filter water as it enters some water courses. And anyway, since cheese can be preserved in a bog for thousands of years, then why not silage? To be honest, I think the main reason bog water is so pollutant is because of the fine silt getting into fishes gills as opposed to the nitrogen levels.


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