Silage or hay

yellow50HX

I have about 12 acres of silage ready to cut and with the weather looking good for the next 7-10 days is was thinking should i do it as hay instead. cheaper option what with no wrapping and all. havent had hay since about 2005. With grass tight this year i really dont want to fcuk up my fodder for next winter, will have another 8ac of arable silage ready in aug and hopefully will be able to get another field ready for 2nd cut too. Thsi cut will accout for 50-75% of my silage for next year.

should gamble and have the hay or should i just make the silage? feeding will be for suckler cows.

reilig

yellow50HX wrote: »

I have about 12 acres of silage ready to cut and with the weather looking good for the next 7-10 days is was thinking should i do it as hay instead. cheaper option what with no wrapping and all. havent had hay since about 2005. With grass tight this year i really dont want to fcuk up my fodder for next winter, will have another 8ac of arable silage ready in aug and hopefully will be able to get another field ready for 2nd cut too. Thsi cut will accout for 50-75% of my silage for next year.

should gamble and have the hay or should i just make the silage? feeding will be for suckler cows.

For suckler cows I'd choose hay. As you say, it will be cheaper. The whole of the week is promised good with temps up to 30 degrees.

Just as long as you have storage for it?

lakill Farm

have you the ability to stay with the hay and keep it turned?

have you a trustworthy contractor to bale it?

Is the hayturner serviced ready to rock? No point having the grass and not been able to turn it

iverjohnston

I am going to try for hay , and sure if I don't get it at the first attempt, I'll wrap it. Will only try the once. Will be nice haylage wrapped.

reilig wrote: »

For suckler cows I'd choose hay. As you say, it will be cheaper. The whole of the week is promised good with temps up to 30 degrees.

Just as long as you have storage for it?

mf240

not a massive fan of hay but the if the weather comes as good as promised should be easy get it.

One good thing about hay is it can be stored for a few years as a buffer if not used.

yellow50HX

reilig wrote: »

For suckler cows I'd choose hay. As you say, it will be cheaper. The whole of the week is promised good with temps up to 30 degrees.

Just as long as you have storage for it?

yeah i have a decent sized shed, will need to move some of the straw bales but thats not a problem. I can always wrap it anyway i suppose. i'll need to get a loan of haybob alright though, used to use the uncles one but its blocking a gap in a ditch these days.

need to do a bit of convincing on the ol lad he reckons its too green for hay

Dampintheattic

yellow50HX wrote: »

yeah i have a decent sized shed, will need to move some of the straw bales but thats not a problem. I can always wrap it anyway i suppose. i'll need to get a loan of haybob alright though, used to use the uncles one but its blocking a gap in a ditch these days.

need to do a bit of convincing on the ol lad he reckons its too green for hay

I'm in same boat. Bit of grazing gone strong and well seeded.
Would have got cut sward in March, grazed twice and got another blast of cut sward about six weeks ago. Could be a challenge to save it for hay, but 25 to 30 degrees promised. Think I'll have a go at it.

RaggyDays

Compare to the cost of making silage Hay wins hands down. You could use the money saved from buying plastic @ €85 a roll and the extra contractor costs to buy barley/meal instead and make a double saving

reilig

RaggyDays wrote: »

Compare to the cost of making silage Hay wins hands down. You could use the money saved from buying plastic @ €85 a roll and the extra contractor costs to buy barley/meal instead and make a double saving

Where are ye lads buying plastic?

It's ranging from €65 without levy paid for austrian plastic to €75 with levy paid for irish plastic (Volac) around here.

vanderbadger

reilig wrote: »

Where are ye lads buying plastic?

It's ranging from €65 without levy paid for austrian plastic to €75 with levy paid for irish plastic (Volac) around here.

75 is very cheap, paid 83 for pakrite at home, most coop around me are 86

delaval

yellow50HX wrote: »

I have about 12 acres of silage ready to cut and with the weather looking good for the next 7-10 days is was thinking should i do it as hay instead. cheaper option what with no wrapping and all. havent had hay since about 2005. With grass tight this year i really dont want to fcuk up my fodder for next winter, will have another 8ac of arable silage ready in aug and hopefully will be able to get another field ready for 2nd cut too. Thsi cut will accout for 50-75% of my silage for next year.

should gamble and have the hay or should i just make the silage? feeding will be for suckler cows.

If you are that reliant on this meadow silage is the only way. Reason being get mowed, tedded and baled and get fert out 3 days. Hay 5 days and then let save in the bale 10-14 days. Hay then needs space in a shed.

Muckit

reilig wrote: »

Where are ye lads buying plastic?

Nowhere. Contractor gets it. For my situation I find it handier as I don't make a lot (<200) and the contractor has a fusion and I'd have at least two bits of rolls left over in the shed every year to be minding.

I think unless you are buying by the pallet (which you possibly are), I think it's best to price the nearest 2/3 places and go with the cheapest without compromising quality. No point driving miles to save €50 ish euro. Have to put a price on your time/diesel etc.. and also stress of getting there before a place closes. Life too short I've started to discover, would have done it before.

Still doesn't answer your question though, sorry! I'd say you'I head north and get a great deal!

reilig

delaval wrote: »

If you are that reliant on this meadow silage is the only way. Reason being get mowed, tedded and baled and get fert out 3 days. Hay 5 days and then let save in the bale 10-14 days. Hay then needs space in a shed.

If the hay is dry enough when you put it into the bale, it shouldn't need to be left out in bales to save. If you need to leave it out because of a danger of it heating, then you should be wrapping it

reilig

Muckit wrote: »

Nowhere. Contractor gets it. For my situation I find it handier as I don't make a lot (<200) and the contractor has a fusion and I'd have at least two bits of rolls left over in the shed every year to be minding.

I think unless you are buying by the pallet (which you possibly are), I think it's best to price the nearest 2/3 places and go with the cheapest without compromising quality. No point driving miles to save €50 ish euro. Have to put a price on your time/diesel etc.. and also stress of getting there before a place closes. Life too short I've started to discover, would have done it before.

Still doesn't answer your question though, sorry! I'd say you'I head north and get a great deal!

After some pricing and negotiating I had a pallet of visqueen without the levy paid on it for €65 per roll.

delaval

We have two guys who do wrapping one charges €10 raked, baled, plastic and stacked. No idea how he makes money!!
Other guy is €9 baled and wrapped with plastic €9/ acre for raking and we bring in. We only use him when other guy is busy

F.D

even if you have to leave it out to save as you call it you could put them along the headland with a 1ft gap between them and work away with the rest of the field business as usual.. we got a few of a strong paddock earlier in the year and have them lined up under the over hang of the slatted shed with no bother on them

Dampintheattic

F.D wrote: »

even if you have to leave it out to save as you call it you could put them along the headland with a 1ft gap between them and work away with the rest of the field business as usual.. we got a few of a strong paddock earlier in the year and have them lined up under the over hang of the slatted shed with no bother on them

Bales, not 100% fit when saved, benefit hugely, from being stored on slats.
Great air circulation. Move them a bit every few days.
Put square bales into open slatted shed with a guy last year. Green and murdering heavy. Not fit.
Unbelieveable how good they turned out, and how much weight (moisture) the lost after a month on the slats. Regular turning very important.

iverjohnston

If you buy a new gate , would the Uncle swop the hay-bob for it?!

yellow50HX wrote: »

yeah i have a decent sized shed, will need to move some of the straw bales but thats not a problem. I can always wrap it anyway i suppose. i'll need to get a loan of haybob alright though, used to use the uncles one but its blocking a gap in a ditch these days.

need to do a bit of convincing on the ol lad he reckons its too green for hay

yellow50HX

iverjohnston wrote: »

If you buy a new gate , would the Uncle swop the hay-bob for it?!

i'd say the gate would be more useful. one of his buddies has stripped a few parts off it hence its now part of teh fence

Farmer Pudsey

If you can get hay grand however baling grass that you failed to make hay with after it got wet a few times is no comparrison to good silage. Mind you grass will have headed out any way at this stage. The other thing about baling very dry silage is that you need to make sure that plastic will not gets holes in it, very dry silage(haylage or an excuse for it) can get very mouldy if air gets into it. Another thing to remember if you are only going to get 70% of what you need is that silage has a highr feed value than hay and you may need to supplement less.

The other thing is to beware of the risk yes the outlook is good however forecasts are only really accurate for 3-4 days after that they are about 70% accurate so if the weather changes can you get a contractor at short notice. A forecast for showery weather can change to a downpour forecast very fast

Masseymad

reilig wrote: »

If the hay is dry enough when you put it into the bale, it shouldn't need to be left out in bales to save. If you need to leave it out because of a danger of it heating, then you should be wrapping it

a bit of heat wont do a bit on the hay

reilig

Masseymad wrote: »

a bit of heat wont do a bit on the hay

That's not what I said. I was to referring to the process of heating which occurrs when hay is baled before it is not fit to bale. The centres of the bales heat up and the hay that is there goes a red colour and loses a huge amount of its quality. In order to prevent this heating process, people will often try to leave the bales out to let them dry further or put them on slats to let the air circulate through them. Personally I think that people should try to have hay dry enough before they bale it rather than trying to dry it further when it is in bales. it makes for better quality. If you don't have the hay dry enough, then I believe that you should be wrapping it for optimum quality!

iverjohnston

when hay is baled before it is not fit to bale. The centres of the bales heat up and the hay that is there goes a red colour and loses a huge amount of its quality. In order to prevent this heating process, people will often try to leave the bales out to let them dry further or put them on slats to let the air circulate through them. Personally I think that people should try to have hay dry enough before they bale it rather than trying to dry it further when it is in bales. it makes for better quality. If you don't have the hay dry enough, then I believe that you should be wrapping it for optimum quality![/quote]

Been there,done that, its still rotting down behind a hedge. You Will get away with it in a small square bale , but not a round bale.

yellow50HX

i was thinking more about it and i might try to wrap most of it, last thing i want is ****e hay next winter with nothing else to feed. if i new i was defo going to have more grss silage later in the summer i'd be happy to leave it all for hay. grass is still tight round here as in order to have enough fields stopped for enough silage i'm having to keep the grazing cycle tight. Thank god teh weatehr has been good for the last while.

I have 1 small field that i could leave down for hay and maybe make small bales, they would be very handy epically if you have to leave one or two cows in on their own. i made small bales about 5 years ago off a long acre behind a neighbour house had them in the shed for about 3 years as they were great for feedign to calves or to the odd cow i had to leave on her own.

reilig

Hard to beat the small bales for calving pens and that. A couple of hundred of them is enough to handle though.

yellow50HX wrote: »

i was thinking more about it and i might try to wrap most of it, last thing i want is ****e hay next winter with nothing else to feed. if i new i was defo going to have more grss silage later in the summer i'd be happy to leave it all for hay. grass is still tight round here as in order to have enough fields stopped for enough silage i'm having to keep the grazing cycle tight. Thank god teh weatehr has been good for the last while.

I have 1 small field that i could leave down for hay and maybe make small bales, they would be very handy epically if you have to leave one or two cows in on their own. i made small bales about 5 years ago off a long acre behind a neighbour house had them in the shed for about 3 years as they were great for feedign to calves or to the odd cow i had to leave on her own.

john_cappa

If you don't have a haybob they forget about hay. Well and good when your uncle had one to use but you can't borrow a neighbours or anythibg like that to make hay (especially if its green and might need an extra turn or two) as chances are they need it this weather aswell.

john_cappa

you don't have a haybob they forget about hay. Well and good when your uncle had one to use but you can't borrow a neighbours or anythibg like that to make hay (especially if its green and might need an extra turn or two) as chances are they need it this weather aswell.

royalmeath

Great weather forcast til next saturday. Super week to make hay or well wilted silage

yellow50HX

john_cappa wrote: »

you don't have a haybob they forget about hay. Well and good when your uncle had one to use but you can't borrow a neighbours or anythibg like that to make hay (especially if its green and might need an extra turn or two) as chances are they need it this weather aswell.

the small field i was thinking of making hay from is accross the road from a neighbour, i was going to ask him to cut and bale it for me anway, i think he is doing some of his own so i might get him to turn it too.

yellow50HX

Flopped the small field for hay this evening, cut the rest silage during the week

larthehar

Ok.. now tell me if I am missing something here... but people are obsessed with how much they save at hay.. a heavy meodow wi have to be turned 5 times @ €8/ac and 8bales/ac that is €5/bale.. to wrap and buy plastic it is €5/BALE and bear in mind the field is tied up with bales for 3 weeks... where is the saving?!

Conor556

larthehar wrote: »

Ok.. now tell me if I am missing something here... but people are obsessed with how much they save at hay.. a heavy meodow wi have to be turned 5 times @ €8/ac and 8bales/ac that is €5/bale.. to wrap and buy plastic it is €5/BALE and bear in mind the field is tied up with bales for 3 weeks... where is the saving?!

How is the field tied up for 3 weeks??

john_cappa

Conor556 wrote: »

How is the field tied up for 3 weeks??

And where is the 8/acre for turning?

yellow50HX

larthehar wrote: »

Ok.. now tell me if I am missing something here... but people are obsessed with how much they save at hay.. a heavy meodow wi have to be turned 5 times @ €8/ac and 8bales/ac that is €5/bale.. to wrap and buy plastic it is €5/BALE and bear in mind the field is tied up with bales for 3 weeks... where is the saving?!

Turning 5 times???? With the weather we are having this week I should only have to turn twice then rake.

With the good weather the bales should be baled dry and will only need to be out for a few days. The grass will still be growing underneath so unless you plan on spreading slurry or fertilzer on it straight away, which would be a waste in hot dry weather with not rain forecast so I doubts the field be be used for anything while the bales are out in it.