Baled silage -white fungus, feed or not?

Milton09

I’m feeding some silage to suckler cows that was baled very dry and there is quite a bit ofwhite fungus in the bales. I normally try not to feed this but I know other people just feed the lot. I’ve heard various stories about the fungus causing pink-eye and infected gums and abortions. Just wondering how many of you feedthe fungus?

6480

hard to call i only open the pit the other day as i had bales 3 year old and i wanted to use them up , i had also very wet and mouldy ones from this year and good ones aswel , anyhow i was feeding 26 a week with straw and meal and had feck all waste

jimmy G M

Hard to say without seeing the bales / fungus? Can you put up a picture?

I know that we often feed round bales to our stock that might have a small area of white mould on them without any bother.(Say a spot of mould 4-6 inches in diameter penetrating 2 inches into the bale) However you say that you have "quite a bit" on your bales. If I came across a bale with quite a bit, i'd be inclined to remove this before feeding though.

Muckit

6480 wrote: »

i had bales 3 year old

How well did they hold 6480?

joejobrien

Milton09 wrote: »

I’m feeding some silage to suckler cows that was baled very dry and there is quite a bit ofwhite fungus in the bales. I normally try not to feed this but I know other people just feed the lot. I’ve heard various stories about the fungus causing pink-eye and infected gums and abortions. Just wondering how many of you feedthe fungus?

Add in mengitis also. If feeding a few bales, possible would not see any proplems in the short term but longer term to continue with feeding them , I would be quiet sure of big proplems ahead. Just work out the cost of one abortion ,(she is now a cull cow or what ever loss of calf....), treatment for eye proplems etc,etc.
I think you get my drift Thread with caution;)

pakalasa

Mouldy silage can also cause listeriosis. It's the white mould that you get in silage that is baled dry, that you have to worry about. Wetter silage tends to go to dung at the site where the wrap is puntured and so seals it better.
When wrapping drier silage, you should put on more wraps to prevent this from happening.
http://www.independent.ie/farming/news-features/poor-silage-sparks-listeriosis-warnings-3253680.html

Milton09

jimmy G M wrote: »

Hard to say without seeing the bales / fungus? Can you put up a picture?

I know that we often feed round bales to our stock that might have a small area of white mould on them without any bother.(Say a spot of mould 4-6 inches in diameter penetrating 2 inches into the bale) However you say that you have "quite a bit" on your bales. If I came across a bale with quite a bit, i'd be inclined to remove this before feeding though.

Meant to post this sooner but got tied up calving, anyway few pics here, thanks.

Figerty

Feed away, I have had worse of the past 10 years and have had no effect on the cows. It's not that bad. I often find that the white mould dies off when the bale is opened.
I'd prefer if it wasn't there, but if it is I haven't seen any effect on the animals yet.

Sam Kade

I fed mouldy bales like yours to dairy cows back in the 90's and ended up with a few very bad cases of e coli mastitis the following spring. The cows became carriers after it and I had a few recurring cases for many years after that.

fatoftheland

if your worried about any of the health issues there is a micotoxin absorber called ultrasorb that you put on silage

signinlate

Break the bale up well so they can pick the best out of it and don't expect them to eat what they reject.
That ultrasorb product looks interesting.
Does anyone know who stocks it?

Sam Kade

signinlate wrote: »

Break the bale up well so they can pick the best out of it and don't expect them to eat what they reject.
That ultrasorb product looks interesting.
Does anyone know who stocks it?

That won't prevent them from eating mouldy silage.

Conor556

Sam Kade wrote: »

That won't prevent them from eating mouldy silage.

We do the same and it works for us, they pick the good stuff and leave the mouldy stuff and then it goes onto the dung pit

pakalasa

All that mould is caused by pin-holes in the plastic. How many people here regularly check the bales for holes. It's well worth the time and effort.

Milton09

Sam Kade wrote: »

That won't prevent them from eating mouldy silage.

Thats right, they actually eat the mouldy stuff first, go mad for it.

ootbitb

There is good mold and bad mold. Like mushrooms and toadstools.

Alexander Fleming proved that and saved millions of lives.

deeraff

pakalasa wrote: »

Mouldy silage can also cause listeriosis. It's the white mould that you get in silage that is baled dry, that you have to worry about. Wetter silage tends to go to dung at the site where the wrap is puntured and so seals it better.
When wrapping drier silage, you should put on more wraps to prevent this from happening.
http://www.independent.ie/farming/news-features/poor-silage-sparks-listeriosis-warnings-3253680.html

Deffo agree... Listeriosis can be a problem for cattle but sheep are very much at risk, if you wernt short of forage I'd dump it!