Tedding/wuffling silage

Muckit

I get the whole concept behind tedding silage and yes you have drier silage and less bales etc, but doesn't it add more expense??

I suppose it's a case of the more acres, the more you save, but is it not case neutral for say a 10-12 acre field? ie yes you have an extra 3-4bales, but you don't have the expense, time or hassle of tedding and then rowing up.

{awaits barrage of criticism from Stan, jomaloney, reilig and others :D:D}

jersey101

Muckit wrote: »

I get the whole concept behind tedding silage and yes you have drier silage and less bales etc, but doesn't it add more expense??

I suppose it's a case of the more acres, the more you save, but is it not case neutral for say a 10-12 acre field? ie yes you have an extra 3-4bales, but you don't have the expense, time or hassle of tedding and then rowing up.

{awaits barrage of criticism from Stan, jomaloney, reilig and others :D:D}

we have a conditioner mower here and we try to leave it down for a day if the weather is good and the bales never go flat and the silage is always fairly dry. But last year was an exception

Going forward...

Spread with the mower and rake before picking up, perfectly good enough.

Tedding is more passes, diesel and time. Risking soil contamination too. Like you say, for what? a bale or two per acre at the very most.

Remember last year when people were glad to have swarthers on mowers?:pac:

mahoney_j

I tedd out all bale silage and pit muckit,No matter what the weather.most of what i feed is over 45% dm and there is no waste as well as no effulent to collect.If you throw in a bale of say 20% dm silage and 40 plus they will wolf down the wetter stuff and pick away at dryer stuff and be much more content.Yes it adds more expense but its worth it.I have an old lely 6 rotor tedder and itll throw 3 ten foots swarths out,Tip around the field in first gear and field is tossed out in no time.And nowdays most silage crews have a rake and pick 30 ft swarths.Its also a huge help if you have only a short weather window to get silage done,Its amazing how quickly grass drys out once turned out

Going forward...

A tedder isn't the difference between 20% and 45% dm bales though.

tabby aspreme

Some lads do it coz they like driving there shiny new tractors, I do it coz I like driving scrap .
You would reduce the number of bales by more than 3 or 4 in 10 acres I think , I'll leave it to the dry matter, number crunchers, to come up with the facts

bob charles

Muckit wrote: »

I get the whole concept behind tedding silage and yes you have drier silage and less bales etc, but doesn't it add more expense??

I suppose it's a case of the more acres, the more you save, but is it not case neutral for say a 10-12 acre field? ie yes you have an extra 3-4bales, but you don't have the expense, time or hassle of tedding and then rowing up.

{awaits barrage of criticism from Stan, jomaloney, reilig and others :D:D}

yes you are partly right for your setup. There are a few reasons -
- where tedding comes into its own is when you want a certain dry matter for silage especially if feeding as part of a diet with a few other ingredients. Using beef cattle as an example you want a diet around 35% dry. So for example say you decide your going feeding fodder beet and silage to cattle. Your fodder beet is 20% dry matter, if you harvested straight from the stroke in a year of average weather your silage might be as low as 25%dm. Ted it out and row it back up for 24 hrs and you may get the silage up to 35 - 40%. mix 40%dm silage and 20% beet and mix at 2parts silage to one part beet you will get the overall diet to 33%. If you follow my long winded reply.

- animals will consume more silage drier silage up to a point that wet stuff. Animals will have to eat a large volume of wetter silage than dry silage and as I stated yesterday Im of the opinion that the stomach has a fixed total volume aswell, so dry silage will mean the animal is able to eat more energy

- wet stuff can be very acidic if made in bad conditions
- leaving silage in the sward to dry for longer than a few hours and it will start to lose some of its energy. there are probably graphs on the web showing energy drop off each hour after cutting, whereas when tedded out it drying and not spoiling. So the quicker you can get silage off the deck after cutting the better and the quicker you can get it to its ideal dm the better

- and plenty of other reasons. but your right, for your situation and during dry weather you can get away without the additional cost of tedding and rowing, but dont be leaving silage in swards for over 24hrs


and everyone above me has probably all your questions answered while I was rambling away with my post:o

mahoney_j

Going forward... wrote: »

A tedder isn't the difference between 20% and 45% dm bales though.

I d argue that in 99% of cases it is.Grass cut and left in 20 ft swarths would struggle to get over 30 to 35% even in like weather we had a few weeks ago.

Going forward...

Who does that(20fts) for bales unless it's unsettled weather?

Sam Kade

Going forward... wrote: »

A tedder isn't the difference between 20% and 45% dm bales though.

As someone on here or another forum said diesel doesn't dry grass.

bob charles

Sam Kade wrote: »

As someone on here or another forum said diesel doesn't dry grass.

But it does, best ideal for smaller farmers is maybe get the contractor to get his conditioner mower to leave the sward full width of the ground and they get raked up 24hrs later. saves on the tedding cost if you have to employ a contractor, and not a bad way of drying silage, but not as good as tedding

Muckit

feck all contractors with rakes around here. Even if there was, they aren't going to do for free. My lads have spreading vanes on the conditioners and have gates open to the last. Yes it's not ideal, but I'I argue the toss that when you weigh up cost etc etc it's case equal, but with less hassle etc.
The best solution is always the easiest one that solves the 'problem' - the 'problem' in this case making silage

20silkcut

bob charles wrote: »

But it does, best ideal for smaller farmers is maybe get the contractor to get his conditioner mower to leave the sward full width of the ground and they get raked up 24hrs later. saves on the tedding cost if you have to employ a contractor, and not a bad way of drying silage, but not as good as tedding

What is the ideal tedding device??

I have a haybob myself and a big contractor near me tells me haybobs are useless and obsolete.

Timmaay

Local contractor only has a conditioner on the mower, and never tedders/rakes etc. I'm going to get much more serious about making silage in the future, stuff we feed the cows last winter was dirt, and as a result they lost plenty of body condition and milk protein smashed through the ground. I haven't got the stuff this year tested yet, but I'd be aiming for about 74dmd and 30dm, but we definitely wont be as lucky with the weather every year, so I think I'll have to look at other options for the silage. Probably try to make a smaller cut of as good quality silage bales, and have them on the side all winter for the autumn ladies.

Bodacious

Timmaay wrote: »

Local contractor only has a conditioner on the mower, and never tedders/rakes etc. I'm going to get much more serious about making silage in the future, stuff we feed the cows last winter was dirt, and as a result they lost plenty of body condition and milk protein smashed through the ground. I haven't got the stuff this year tested yet, but I'd be aiming for about 74dmd and 30dm, but we definitely wont be as lucky with the weather every year, so I think I'll have to look at other options for the silage. Probably try to make a smaller cut of as good quality silage bales, and have them on the side all winter for the autumn ladies.

I finished baling this evening for another year.. used both a condition mower for first time and also regular disc mower/ hay bob.. condition mower is great job but to get it dry enough in my opinion it would want a second lift with muffler thing IMO

delaval

We used to get contractor to mow and we would ted out grass usually >30% dm

Contractor got one of these self propelled mower that does an a average an average job, mows quickly but not as clean as you'd like.

As we only have one tractor we now mow with a 10 non condition mower that leaves ground fully covered and then take into 20' swards. Same results >30% dm in pit and >45% dm for bales.

Had I the tractors I'd mow, ted myself but alas we'll work on the way we are.

Muckit

Cattle need water to function, right? So what harm is it getting some of that from moist feed? So many questions....

delaval

Muckit wrote: »

Cattle need water to function, right? So what harm is it getting some of that from moist feed? So many questions....

It's easier and cheaper to provide through a 20mm pipe, ha

Dozer1

I've a 5ft 6 drum mower and a haybob, and I'd be a fan of tedding and raking too but where I've the problem is that unlike the dairy lads on here with big fields I've alot of small fields, even cut some 1/2 acres at the back of some neighbours houses so contractor won't bring the rake for alot of my baling.

so you end up doing it with the haybob which is only average at raking imo.

Find it very dishearting to go to the effort of cutting and raking it and then when the baler leaves there is aload of grass on the left ground.

only other option then is to get the contractor in with his mounted conditioner mower which like others have said means the grass isn't as dry

reilig

Lads, ye are all being duped by yer contractors and yer machinery dealers :D:D

A 10 acre field will have 25% (or higher) less bales if you cut it and wilt it as opposed to leaving it in the conditioner rows. So in a 10 acre field with 10 bales per acre non wilted, you could save 25 bales and still have the same amount of feeding.

We've been through the whole conditioner mowing phase and it didn't pay for us!

What does a bale cost to bale and feed?
At least €12 when you count baling, wrapping, handling, stacking, and don't forget a 25% reduction in feeding out bales in winter!!

Bales are lighter and we can stack them with the double handler - again saving diesel.

What does it cost to ted and row?
For us, we can ted and row with the MF 168 and the 360. Uses about 1 euro of diesel per acre to ted and row in total as it's only ticking over. Hadn't to put a spring or an pin into the haybob since we bought it 2 years ago for €1800. Can row 12ft rows or 24ft rows depending on the heaviness of the crop and the machine picking it up.

Disc mowers / drum mowers and haybobs are relatively cheap and easy to work in comparison to conditioner mowers.

Wilted bales are easier on machines - baler bearings, wrapper, tractor etc.

We make approx 500 wilted bales of at least 60% DM (Many were above 70% DM this year). If we didn't wilt we would have at least 150 extra bales - at a min of €12 per bale that's an extra cost at least €1800. Plus the extra time for handling bales both stacking and feeding. The cost of the machines weren't long recouping themselves!

Conditioner suits the contractor cause he gets paid per bale. Suits the man selling bales. Suits the man who hasn't time to do his own work and loves spending extra time stacking heavy bales one at a time (Muckit? :P )

Duped I'm telling ya.

tabby aspreme

Not sure about cattle but with sheep when feeding drier silage the bedding lasts longer and less foot trouble

Timmaay

Muckit wrote: »

Cattle need water to function, right? So what harm is it getting some of that from moist feed? So many questions....

Last year our silage test showed it was 20% dm, it was cut fairly dry (may 25th I think), left on the field overnight, all but the last 20acres were picked up dry, I don't know if that last wet 20acres did the damage, but all winter water was running out of the silage while feeding it, we depend just on silage and parlour nuts for the cows winter diet here, and I don't think they were physically able to eat enough of it, too much water in it. Its much easier for the cow to eat her fill of dry silage and go to the trough for water. That and I'm tight on silage pit space as is, moving forward post 2015 I could aim for either another pit (concrete=money), or improve the dm and fit more in the pits. We make a good few bales as is now anyways, so would rather not have to expand silage stocks that way, as pit silage is less hassle to feed in my view.

Muckit

reilig wrote: »

Lads, ye are all being duped by yer contractors and yer machinery dealers :D:D

A 10 acre field will have 25% (or higher) less bales if you cut it and wilt it as opposed to leaving it in the conditioner rows. So in a 10 acre field with 10 bales per acre non wilted, you could save 25 bales and still have the same amount of feeding.

We've been through the whole conditioner mowing phase and it didn't pay for us!

What does a bale cost to bale and feed?
At least €12 when you count baling, wrapping, handling, stacking, and don't forget a 25% reduction in feeding out bales in winter!!

Bales are lighter and we can stack them with the double handler - again saving diesel.

What does it cost to ted and row?
For us, we can ted and row with the MF 168 and the 360. Uses about 1 euro of diesel per acre to ted and row in total as it's only ticking over. Hadn't to put a spring or an pin into the haybob since we bought it 2 years ago for €1800. Can row 12ft rows or 24ft rows depending on the heaviness of the crop and the machine picking it up.


Conditioner suits the contractor cause he gets paid per bale. Suits the man selling bales. Suits the man who hasn't time to do his own work and loves spending extra time stacking heavy bales one at a time (Muckit? :P )

Duped I'm telling ya.

First off, selling bales is a mug's game, so yes maybe I've been duped. As I said last back end, selling @ €20 a bale, you are just about getting paid for your expenses, but not your grass. Why did I close for a second cut when I didn't need the bales for myself this year? I could have used that fertiliser to grow grass to fatten cattle! Hands up, a doop? Guilty as charged your honour! Now I still have it my head to feed these said bales myself and keep my pit. Little or no silage then to be made next year. And that's what I'I be doing if I can't get €30+ a bale for them.

You are wrong though re stacking bales, I HATE stacking bales!! . I also hate going round and around a field with a tedder, breaking springs and bending tines!! Pit all the way. I'I sing it all day long! I've bought a piggybank to start saving for a secure cover, then it will be total luxury

If I was ever to build another shed, I'd be building another silage base alongside. 2 grand low pits, no bales, no tedder, no rake..... no tyres..... no wrap blowing around the place........now doesn't that sound like heaven?!

reilig

Muckit wrote: »

First off, selling bales is a mug's game, so yes maybe I've been duped. As I said last back end, selling @ €20 a bale, you are just about getting paid for your expenses, but not your grass. Why did I close for a second cut when I didn't need the bales for myself this year? I could have used that fertiliser to grow grass to fatten cattle! Hands up, a doop? Guilty as charged your honour! Now I still have it my head to feed these said bales myself and keep my pit. Little or no silage then to be made next year. And that's what I'I be doing if I can't get €30+ a bale for them.

You are wrong though re stacking bales, I HATE stacking bales!! . I also hate going round and around a field with a tedder, breaking springs and bending tines!! Pit all the way. I'I sing it all day long! I've bought a piggybank to start saving for a secure cover, then it will be total luxury

If I was ever to build another shed, I'd be building another silage base alongside. 2 grand low pits, no bales, no tedder, no rake..... no tyres..... no wrap blowing around the place........now doesn't that sound like heaven?!

:D

I agree on the pit. We have a base, but pit doesn't suit field fragmentation or the drawn out nature of our grass growth / silage season. So we stack the bales on the pit. It works for us because we have a system and we are able to implement it! ie. Our own old but good machinery, bale trailer, own wrapper, wrapping point close to stacking, double bale handler etc.

Timmaay

Definitely agreed on buying/selling silage, always a disaster, long term aim to make enough for yourself only, and if you need to buy in feeder, other alternatives are much more reliable. Thats another reason why I'm not too keen on too many bales, pit silage will last several years and once you have enough of a buffer you shouldn't need to ever buy in silage, and if you have excess you can store it over one year to the next, and cut less the following yr.

vanderbadger

Muckit wrote: »

First off, selling bales is a mug's game, so yes maybe I've been duped. As I said last back end, selling @ €20 a bale, you are just about getting paid for your expenses, but not your grass. Why did I close for a second cut when I didn't need the bales for myself this year? I could have used that fertiliser to grow grass to fatten cattle! Hands up, a doop? Guilty as charged your honour! Now I still have it my head to feed these said bales myself and keep my pit. Little or no silage then to be made next year. And that's what I'I be doing if I can't get €30+ a bale for them.

You are wrong though re stacking bales, I HATE stacking bales!! . I also hate going round and around a field with a tedder, breaking springs and bending tines!! Pit all the way. I'I sing it all day long! I've bought a piggybank to start saving for a secure cover, then it will be total luxury

If I was ever to build another shed, I'd be building another silage base alongside. 2 grand low pits, no bales, no tedder, no rake..... no tyres..... no wrap blowing around the place........now doesn't that sound like heaven?!

give me bales any day, did pit for years and wont be going back to messy effluent, rotten sand bags, tyres full of water and ****e, polythene flapping about every time there is a storm..as for the tedding most people just cut and bale the following day around here, never tedded out silage but bought spreader veins for my mower lately so will be trying them out in the next few days weather permitting. give the neighbors and hand and they return the favor, bales are usually in and stacked as baler finishes

caseman

Muckit wrote: »

First off, selling bales is a mug's game, so yes maybe I've been duped. As I said last back end, selling @ €20 a bale, you are just about getting paid for your expenses, but not your grass. Why did I close for a second cut when I didn't need the bales for myself this year? I could have used that fertiliser to grow grass to fatten cattle! Hands up, a doop? Guilty as charged your honour! Now I still have it my head to feed these said bales myself and keep my pit. Little or no silage then to be made next year. And that's what I'I be doing if I can't get €30+ a bale for them.

You are wrong though re stacking bales, I HATE stacking bales!! . I also hate going round and around a field with a tedder, breaking springs and bending tines!! Pit all the way. I'I sing it all day long! I've bought a piggybank to start saving for a secure cover, then it will be total luxury

If I was ever to build another shed, I'd be building another silage base alongside. 2 grand low pits, no bales, no tedder, no rake..... no tyres..... no wrap blowing around the place........now doesn't that sound like heaven?!

Pit all the way here to.bales work out to expensive
i haven't bought a new cover 5 years and i have no waste.
Old krone silage wagon used to pit it and neighbour mows

farmernewbie

Muckit wrote: »

First off, selling bales is a mug's game, so yes maybe I've been duped. As I said last back end, selling @ €20 a bale, you are just about getting paid for your expenses, but not your grass. Why did I close for a second cut when I didn't need the bales for myself this year? I could have used that fertiliser to grow grass to fatten cattle! Hands up, a doop? Guilty as charged your honour! Now I still have it my head to feed these said bales myself and keep my pit. Little or no silage then to be made next year. And that's what I'I be doing if I can't get €30+ a bale for them.

You are wrong though re stacking bales, I HATE stacking bales!! . I also hate going round and around a field with a tedder, breaking springs and bending tines!! Pit all the way. I'I sing it all day long! I've bought a piggybank to start saving for a secure cover, then it will be total luxury

If I was ever to build another shed, I'd be building another silage base alongside. 2 grand low pits, no bales, no tedder, no rake..... no tyres..... no wrap blowing around the place........now doesn't that sound like heaven?!

What would you charge for a bale Muckit from field? Contractor comes in, mows, bales and wraps himself and keeps the bales. What price you reckon you need to get to break even? It would be first cut....decent crop and have got 2 1/2 bags of 18.6.12 per acre.

Muckit

farmernewbie wrote: »

What would you charge for a bale Muckit from field? Contractor comes in, mows, bales and wraps himself and keeps the bales. What price you reckon you need to get to break even? It would be first cut....decent crop and have got 2 1/2 bags of 18.6.12 per acre.

let's do the sums. 2.5 bags @ €22/bag is €55/acre on fertiliser so €5.50/bale you have spent on fertiliser if it returns 10bales/acre.

Wouldn't you want to be getting €10-€12 a bale anyway? If you weren't, wouldn't a lad be better stick up the reel of polywire and strip it?

farmernewbie

Muckit wrote: »

let's do the sums. 2.5 bags @ €22/bag is €55/acre on fertiliser so €5.50/bale you have spent on fertiliser if it returns 10bales/acre.

Wouldn't you want to be getting €10-€12 a bale anyway? If you weren't, wouldn't a lad be better stick up the reel of polywire and strip it?

True.....have gotten from €11 to €14 per bale. over the last few years.....if the tax man asks it's 10.

Muckit

farmernewbie wrote: »

True.....have gotten from €11 to €14 per bale. over the last few years.....if the tax man asks it's 10.

I think you've as much out of it that way as any other.... and less headaches!!

yellow50HX

intresting thread, we do all bales nowadays. they are great but expensive. we have a silage pit but its now used as a bale/machinery shed and also for housing cattle. plus id be wary puttign in those big loadrs into it noawadays.

have been lookign to find a way to reuce cost of silage with out reducing quality. its all contract work here, mower conditoner, draw witha keltec, wrap and stack with a teleporter. i wont be moving from teh existign wrapper stacker unit as is means teh plastic gets minium handlign and as we have the bales on a hardcore base less likely to get punctered. drawing them in with a bale handler or spike on teh tractor takes too much time an you juct end up leaving tracks on the fields, i still do it for small cuts on paddocks near wher im stacking but wouldnt for the main cut. usign a bale trailer takes twice to 3 times the lenght of time of teh keltec.

I dont have me own mower but the idea is rattling around in my head to get maybe a 8ft disc mower that i can also use for topping (topper died about 2 years ago). i get the contractor to mow in single swarths and let it down for a day to wilt. usually the silage is good an wilted but not too dry and it perserves well. so the idea of tedding it out and then rowing it back in would be very new to me. If i was to get teh mower then i'd need to get a tedder/rower as well. i'm just wondering if the expense of teh machine and the extra time needed (3 runs, mower, tedding, rowing) would be better then a single 10ft run witha mower conditor?

we made haylage 3 years ago, mowed on a friday (lad mowing came a day early) but contractor wasnt able ot get to us until monday (came a day late). sialge was very dry and wasnt as good as the earlier stuff that was only wilted for about 36hrs.

i think silage can be too dry

Muckit

@yellow50HX......How much is the silage costing you from standing to stacked in the yard?




No contractors offering a draw and stack service around here.:o I agree drawing singly, even doubles is a waste of time. I'd only have 150 bales MAX, but there are lads here making 500+. I don't know how they are not driven cracked drawing them in. @ costings of €3/bale, that's €30/acre to bring them in, be it contractor or yourself. Now some lads might start to sit up and take note.

Lads will make excuses about silage bases being too dear, but once it's built it will give years of service and won't break down like your tractor for drawing in could potentially. You don't have to be relying on neighbours. Even if you get neighbours to help, you have to return the favour, which in essence means that you have to bring in ALL your own bales yourself, only you are doing it all summer IFKWIM. Some lads have great patience. I wouldn't be able for it.

Dairy lads are much better I see on here with the calculator. They have to be because they are relying on the farm to earn a crust. They also put a value on their time as if they are caught up drawing bales all f**kin day, the cows need someone else to milk them.... which cost €€€€.

Mulumpy

Costing me 15 euros a bale from knocking stacking inc plastic. Working away from farm today. Will be all done when I get home. Only sweat I'll break is signing the cheque afterwards. Still think its worth it.

yellow50HX

Muckit wrote: »

@yellow50HX......How much is the silage costing you from standing to stacked in the yard?




No contractors offering a draw and stack service around here.:o I agree drawing singly, even doubles is a waste of time. I'd only have 150 bales MAX, but there are lads here making 500+. I don't know how they are not driven cracked drawing them in. @ costings of €3/bale, that's €30/acre to bring them in, be it contractor or yourself. Now some lads might start to sit up and take note.

Lads will make excuses about silage bases being too dear, but once it's built it will give years of service and won't break down like your tractor for drawing in could potentially. You don't have to be relying on neighbours. Even if you get neighbours to help, you have to return the favour, which in essence means that you have to bring in ALL your own bales yourself, only you are doing it all summer IFKWIM. Some lads have great patience. I wouldn't be able for it.

Dairy lads are much better I see on here with the calculator. They have to be because they are relying on the farm to earn a crust. They also put a value on their time as if they are caught up drawing bales all f**kin day, the cows need someone else to milk them.... which cost €€€€.

Mowing is €20/ac and drawing wrapping and stacking is €10/bale, plus plastic.

jomoloney

Haven't read all the posts been too busy baling grass

we mow, row and bale, draw and stack , job done

not a fan of leaving grass more than 1 night on the ground

not a fan of high N usage like some of the posters here

mowed monday evening, threw it into 25 foot rows last evening and & started baling at 10 am this morn ............ yes I know 2 nights on the ground but what can you do, .. 1 fellow hung over after Miss Macra in south tipp and another after a wedding in belfast , but at least they eventually arrived home safely

got 175 bales to day looks ok

I don't think I will change my system ,.... light cuts , little and often
keep the labour & machinery to a minimun

one thing about bales whether they are wet or dry , have enough of them and you will be ok

yellow50HX

if i was to use an ordinary disc mower even one with an 8ft cut, would i still need to tedd in the rows before the baler? using a disc mower i'd probably have to open the rows as wide as i could like when cutting hay then use a tedder to draw it back in before baling

reilig

yellow50HX wrote: »

if i was to use an ordinary disc mower even one with an 8ft cut, would i still need to tedd in the rows before the baler? using a disc mower i'd probably have to open the rows as wide as i could like when cutting hay then use a tedder to draw it back in before baling

There's no law or rule to say that you have to ted grass before baling. But to make it convenient for the baler, you would need to row the grass after cutting it with the disc mower.

Muckit

I think legwax bales straight out of a standard mower..... and he's no daw. Saying that, it's not ideal. Even with a conditioner mower working in short grass, the baler will leave a little after it

jimmy G M

We'd make 500 -700 bales pa. Used to do pit however base need to be resurfaced and we got scalded a few years with contractor coming in wet weather ploughing up fields etc.

We always ted the grass and I agree with relig - you will get at least 2 bales less per acre.

Usually contractor cuts with his 10ft mow co. If he is mad busy we can cut ourselves with 8ft std disk mower. Contractor charges €1.50 per bale for cutting so @ circa €15/acre hardly worth mowing ourselves.

We ted / row with a pz haybob driven by MF 35x with some simple modifications;

Firstly I drilled a few extra holes along the gates so I can vary the width of the rows. This allows me spread the row from the mow co out over 7 - 8 ft if I want, and re- row back to the same width as the mow co did originally. (A normal haybob row is narrower)

Second I always ted and row the grass with the tines set to ted. When tines are set to row, the hay bob tends to leave the grass piled high in the middle of the row and leads to bales with poor shoulders. When set to ted the grass is scattered evenly over the width of the row.

Thirdly how you drive is critical - no need to over rev as leads to lumping. Always drive to ensure that each rotor is catching the same amount of grass. If one rotor is catching more grass than the other it throws the grass back heavier on one side or the row than the other leading to uneven rows and slopey bales. I always try to ensure that the 1 mow co row is tedded out and goes back into the same row thus ensuring even rows as much as possible.

Depending on drying conditions, we might ted the row out over an 8ft width and re - row back the following day. If conditions are very good we just run along the rows and row at normal width for baling -similar to a wuffler.

I attach some photo's below taken this year as I had it in my mind to post the above earlier but never got around to it. Anyway might be of some use for next year.

Photo 1 shows the extra holes drilled in the gates
Photo 2 shows a row on the right which was tedded vs a mow co row on the left left.
Photo 3 shows the difference between rows if tines are not set to ted out when rowing. My father ran over these rows initially with tines incorrectly set so I decided to re-do. Row on the right has been re-done. Row on the left also shows what can happen if not driving correctly on the row and one rotor is catching more grass than the other.

The tractor we use is MF 35x and tractor and haybob together worth aprox €3k?. Probably uses €2 - €3 diesel per hour, so less than €1 per acre to ted, saving possibly €24 per acre, so well worth doing.

Muckit

How does the 35 like bringing in the bales?! Seriously though, how do ye organise bringing in that many bales?

jimmy G M

Naw 35 wont move bales. Lift em ok, but front wheels off the ground. Two tractors, 390T with single handler, MF 4255 with front loader and rear handler. Sometimes borrow double handler off a friend.

We stack in 3 locations, main yard, at end of road down thru land and at outlying shed so no long draws. Bales down end of road need to come in over the winter tho but doesn't seem much of a job moving a couple every day over a few weeks.

Generally cut in batches of 80 - 100 , so 6 or 7 busy days over 4 - 6 weeks. A comfortable seat helps. After that turn up the radio and relax. No point getting excited.

Going forward...

Baling after a haybob is a sure way of going gray while at the same time making poorly shaped bales.

jimmy G M

Going forward... wrote: »

Baling after a haybob is a sure way of going gray while at the same time making poorly shaped bales.

I'm not bothered if contractor goes grey or not. I'm just interested in improving quality of the feed and reducing the amount paid to contractor. Contractor we use is happy to bale away after the hay bob with Fusion 2 baler. If he's not interested there's plenty more around. Bales come out solid & in good shape once you make decent rows as outlined above.

Markcheese

caseman wrote: »

Pit all the way here to.bales work out to expensive
i haven't bought a new cover 5 years and i have no waste.
Old krone silage wagon used to pit it and neighbour mows

Fair dues, I think a lot of lads have lost the run of themselves with costs....if it's not shiny and new and packaged it's no good...
Mind you no point messing around with stuff that's unreliable and too slow either...

Sami23

jimmy G M wrote: »

We'd make 500 -700 bales pa. Used to do pit however base need to be resurfaced and we got scalded a few years with contractor coming in wet weather ploughing up fields etc.

We always ted the grass and I agree with relig - you will get at least 2 bales less per acre.

Usually contractor cuts with his 10ft mow co. If he is mad busy we can cut ourselves with 8ft std disk mower. Contractor charges €1.50 per bale for cutting so @ circa €15/acre hardly worth mowing ourselves.

We ted / row with a pz haybob driven by MF 35x with some simple modifications;

Firstly I drilled a few extra holes along the gates so I can vary the width of the rows. This allows me spread the row from the mow co out over 7 - 8 ft if I want, and re- row back to the same width as the mow co did originally. (A normal haybob row is narrower)

Second I always ted and row the grass with the tines set to ted. When tines are set to row, the hay bob tends to leave the grass piled high in the middle of the row and leads to bales with poor shoulders. When set to ted the grass is scattered evenly over the width of the row.

Thirdly how you drive is critical - no need to over rev as leads to lumping. Always drive to ensure that each rotor is catching the same amount of grass. If one rotor is catching more grass than the other it throws the grass back heavier on one side or the row than the other leading to uneven rows and slopey bales. I always try to ensure that the 1 mow co row is tedded out and goes back into the same row thus ensuring even rows as much as possible.

Have to agree with your 3 points above as I do the same myself.

Markcheese

Lad I worked for did all his own bales, in a clover system so every field got a least one light cut, his big fear was "shattering" the clover leaf , he reckoned he could lose the best of the silage by rough/over handling .. So cut with a standard drum mower...well wilted and then rowed up with a grass rake(not a Tedder)small version of what the contractors use... Then bale but with no chopper on... The bales could still be a little wet (would sag a little over winter) but massive feeding in em ...