what's your ideal amount of bales per acre?

locky76

given the excellent silage making conditions this year, what is your ideal amount of fusion bales of silage peracre, i.e. what is your trade off between quality and quantity.
I find that 8 to 9 bales per acre bulks up quite nicely while still retaining most of it's quality...
(although my first go at silage testing this winter may prove otherwise...)

mahoney_j

locky76 wrote: »

given the excellent silage making conditions this year, what is your ideal amount of fusion bales of silage peracre, i.e. what is your trade off between quality and quantity.
I find that 8 to 9 bales per acre bulks up quite nicely while still retaining most of it's quality...
(although my first go at silage testing this winter may prove otherwise...)

5 to 7 fusion bales for excellent quality ,the nearer to 5 the better.

reilig

7 or 8 bales would be what we find adequate for sucklers.
5 or 6 for bales for weinlings that we are trying to fatten.

Bales would be wilted to above 65% DM however. 90% of bales made in this country are not above 45% DM. Most bales made in summer 2012 were less than 30% DM. ie. 70% of their make up was water. AFAIK water has little or no nutritional value

:D

hugo29

mahoney_j wrote: »

5 to 7 fusion bales for excellent quality ,the nearer to 5 the better.

:eek::eek:, really, took a second cut of 25 fusion bales off an acre and half of reseed ground a few weeks ago, thats not good so

hugo29

can you test quality of bales and how does one go about it

reilig

hugo29 wrote: »

can you test quality of bales and how does one go about it

Yea, you can take a sample of one or a number of bales and send it off through Teagasc or you can send it off yourself to one of the numerous labs across the country that do it.

hugo29

reilig wrote: »

Yea, you can take a sample of one or a number of bales and send it off through Teagasc or you can send it off yourself to one of the numerous labs across the country that do it.

cheers, do you put small hole in bale and then seal or what

reilig

hugo29 wrote: »

cheers, do you put small hole in bale and then seal or what

That's it. Just a straight slice, pull out a good handful and then tape it back up!

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

We had 45 bales of Hay from 5 acres this summer. The crop was huge though, ive never seen a crop so tall. It was a newly reseeded on bog land. Took 6 days to dry in the heat wave in mid july, cut on sat, bailed on friday. It was bailed with a mcchale F550 and they were very well packed.

hugo29

Oaklee Yummy Self-discipline wrote: »

We had 45 bales of Hay from 5 acres this summer. The crop was huge though, ive never seen a crop so tall. It was a newly reseeded on bog land. Took 6 days to dry in the heat wave in mid july, cut on sat, bailed on friday. It was bailed with a mcchale F550 and they were very well packed.

how did you reseed the bog frank, i presume you did not plough

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

hugo29 wrote: »

how did you reseed the bog frank, i presume you did not plough

no we didnt plough, just sprayed it and put the power harrow on it. seeded it after that. we used grass seed designed for bog land, cant remember its name. it grows very high

mahoney_j

hugo29 wrote: »

:eek::eek:, really, took a second cut of 25 fusion bales off an acre and half of reseed ground a few weeks ago, thats not good so

Quality not quantity for me.bLes have to be 45% plus dm,over 80 dmd and 18 to 20% protein.feed to milking cows and yearling heifers .often take out surplus paddocks at anything from 2 to 4 bLes per acre.less time drawing bAles and top quality feed.ob that 25 bAles off 1.5 acres,how long was it growing and put a dmd figure on it .at a guess dmd would be sub 70 and proab growing 10 weeks

moy83

reilig wrote: »

That's it. Just a straight slice, pull out a good handful and then tape it back up!

There was a good yoke at the inventions stand in tullamore , it was an inch wide piece of stainless steel pipe with an end like an auger that went on a battery drill . You could bore out a deep enough core sample and only leave an inch sized hole to patch

hugo29

mahoney_j wrote: »

Quality not quantity for me.bLes have to be 45% plus dm,over 80 dmd and 18 to 20% protein.feed to milking cows and yearling heifers .often take out surplus paddocks at anything from 2 to 4 bLes per acre.less time drawing bAles and top quality feed.ob that 25 bAles off 1.5 acres,how long was it growing and put a dmd figure on it .at a guess dmd would be sub 70 and proab growing 10 weeks

first cut was taken off it on the 15th June, it got 3 bags of 18-6-12 and second cut taken 10th of August, would have taken earlier but was away
dont know what DMD is, it shocked me the quantity

hugo29

Oaklee Yummy Self-discipline wrote: »

no we didnt plough, just sprayed it and put the power harrow on it. seeded it after that. we used grass seed designed for bog land, cant remember its name. it grows very high

if ya find out the name let me know, have a few acres of bog to do when i finish reps, its habitat at moment:D