Next seasons ewe fodder

Green farmer

I know it's early days, but next thing to be thinking about will be planning for hay or silage. Which diet did the ewes do better on last winter??? Personally I found my ewes did better on silage this year. Or are ye planning on giving them a different diet ???

tomwaterford

hay if I can save it:pac::pac:

emm though I wouldn't be adverse to taking winter grazing on a per ewe per day basis

Conmaicne Mara

Nothing much to add on this, except at our last STAP meeting I mentioned every Teagasc sheep dietary publication mentioned silage - not traditionally fed to sheep in our area - that those leaflets were of limited use to me. Long story short, our facilitator said that GOOD hay was roughly equal to BAD silage.

Based on that, if I had the choice, which I don't, I'd be looking to make silage, preferably good stuff.

tomwaterford

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

Nothing much to add on this, except at our last STAP meeting I mentioned every Teagasc sheep dietary publication mentioned silage - not traditionally fed to sheep in our area - that those leaflets were of limited use to me. Long story short, our facilitator said that GOOD hay was roughly equal to BAD silage.

Based on that, if I had the choice, which I don't, I'd be looking to make silage, preferably good stuff.

I found haylage to be the best....but there is significant saving to be made in making hay...I had good hay this year and its was far supriorer to the silage made in summer 2012

Green farmer

I've always made hay, but ran short a few months ago, so I got in good silage to keep me going. Sweet smelling second cut stuff. Anyway, come lambing time the ewes were in very good condition and lambs were a fine size. Surprised me, as I always thought silage as a cattle thing.

eire23

Hope to make good quality silage again this year, last years first cut was 70dmd and second cut 68dmd.Said field got reseeded last year so hopefully it should help improve it even more.
Best silage we ever had and it saves on the amount of nuts being fed. Prob buy a lock of small square bales of hay for feeding in the individual pens at lambing as well

Username John

Is there an increased risk of prolapse feeding silage before lambing?
Or is this totally false?

Green farmer

I tried making small square bales last year instead of round bales. Didn't work out great. It overheated in the shed. Cannt beat making the round bales and leaving it in the field for a month.

sea12

Aleays feed hay here since got rid of the cattle a few years ago. Don't find they eat it particiluary well and afraid of it going off.

Feed good quality hay and happy enough with it.

eire23

Username John wrote: »

Is there an increased risk of prolapse feeding silage before lambing?
Or is this totally false?

Only if the diet is to high in fibre and their not getting enough protein. ie, not getting enough nuts compared to silage. It is supposed to be a contributory factor but might not be the main cause.

Nekarsulm

made some fantastic bales of silage last summer. young grass all leaf and got a fierce wilt. almost like Mick McQuade (anyone remember that stuff?)
They loved it. When it was all gone, they refused point blank to eat the average stuff. Had to give them pit stuff and sold the other sourer bales.

AnFeirmeoir

I'll stick with the haylage . Zero waste and nice to work with.

tabby aspreme

Wrapped bales fed here too, wilted for 2 days usually, don't know whether that's silage or haylage, at lambing I buy a few bales of hay for the stragglers when they can't eat a wrapped bale quick enough befor it goes off and I find there very slow to eat the hay

moy83

Does the silage need to be chopped for sheep ? We have mostly single chop pit silage here for the cows and if I get a few ewes it will be easier to feed rather than opening a big bale .

eire23

moy83 wrote: »

Does the silage need to be chopped for sheep ? We have mostly single chop pit silage here for the cows and if I get a few ewes it will be easier to feed rather than opening a big bale .

Single chop silage is grand for sheep. Used to cut our own with a single chop for years till we went to bales and they done the finest on it.
They actually pull more of the bale silage in on the slats than single chop and ya would think it would be the other way around

tomwaterford

Green farmer wrote: »

I tried making small square bales last year instead of round bales. Didn't work out great. It overheated in the shed. Cannt beat making the round bales and leaving it in the field for a month.

they weren't 100% fit so...AFAIK it has to be 95%+ dry for the square bale...as it is tighter packed than round bales

....though if its dried too much it no better than straw IMO...the joys of it...and around here they say the longer you can let them stand in the field is the making of them
I got a neighbour to look at mine last year before we baled it:)

Green farmer

tomwaterford wrote: »

they weren't 100% fit so...AFAIK it has to be 95%+ dry for the square bale...as it is tighter packed than round bales

....though if its dried too much it no better than straw IMO...the joys of it...and around here they say the longer you can let them stand in the field is the making of them
I got a neighbour to look at mine last year before we baled it:)

I made it durning the good weather and all. I left them out for a week after baling. The forecast was starting to change so I brought them in. I thought they were fine but, I was wrong. The big round seem to be safer bet as they can stay out for a month or longer, until they have cooled completely.
Most of them were still eaten, but only the best of them were given to anything pregnant.

tomwaterford

Green farmer wrote: »

I made it durning the good weather and all. I left them out for a week after baling. The forecast was starting to change so I brought them in. I thought they were fine but, I was wrong. The big round seem to be safer bet as they can stay out for a month or longer, until they have cooled completely.
Most of them were still eaten, but only the best of them were given to anything pregnant.

that's a bit of a dose
as a side note...do you remember the small round bales....I have an option of getting one really old vintage small round baler...was going to get it for the laugh as much as anything (obsureish vintage machinery interests me)

Green farmer

The other thing that lads have to be careful with is farmers lung, when working with hay that has overheated. Some of the hay was a bit dusty. I went and got a mask for when I was working with it. Continued exposure to it could damage your lungs. Nasty thing to be aware of and to look after yourselves !!!

Username John

tomwaterford wrote: »

that's a bit of a dose
as a side note...do you remember the small round bales....I have an option of getting one really old vintage small round baler...was going to get it for the laugh as much as anything (obsureish vintage machinery interests me)

There was a few around here when I was small. I don't remember that much about em, but thinking back now, they seem like health and safety wasn't too much of an issue when they were made?

tomwaterford

Username John wrote: »

There was a few around here when I was small. I don't remember that much about em, but thinking back now, they seem like health and safety wasn't too much of an issue when they were made?

not to go too much off topic....the one im meant to be getting is lying out in a shed with 25+ years...but roof blew away during the storm...it only just for a hobby more than anything ill be getting it
they said it had pick-up problem and It was left there...haven't a clue what make

ganmo

Last summer was the first time in 30 years we've made hay(on an all sheep farm), we've been feeding silage but the wastage can be massive

Cattlepen

Had a problem with bought in pit silage last year. Listeriosis break out which is soul destroying to see. Changed to hay and the problem went. You'd want to be using good racks and small square bales to prevent waste though. Had my own pit silage this year as I was trying sheep slats. Mangers had to be cleaned every morning and fresh silage put in cause had two new cases of listeriosis early on

Birdnuts

Last summer I managed to make 2 lots of hay off the place for the first time. Certainly helped my bottom line this season.