hay or silage

farm14

Which is best hay or silage? Would hay be cheaper & could you out winter stock with hay to reduce costs?

mahoney_j

farm14 wrote: »

Which is best hay or silage? Would hay be cheaper & could you out winter stock with hay to reduce costs?

Personally prefer good quality silage,hay is cheaper but you need a good week of suitable weather to get it right.and yes you could out winter stock on it to reduce costs but you could also do it with silage.unless u could get hay as good as they get it in ballydoyle I'd go with silage

Hilltopman

Hay definitely a lot cheaper and a lot to be said for it for out wintered stock in my opinion

_Brian

Not meaning to go OT but in the last few days lads have said to me that tey have hay ready to knock and will try it for hay knowing they can always wrap it as silage if the weather turns.

Now, we haven't saved hay since I was five, and that's a few years ago now. But would ground that's been closed for hay not make poor silage ?
Poor grass made into silage is damn expensive feeding. Is this not a prime example of inefficient feed that drives costs up on beef farms.

Genghis Cant

I'd always like to have a nice bit of hay in the shed. Even for the occasional late/early calver or sick beast, it's woeful handy to have instead of opening a pit/bale.

_Brian

I agree completely, we always buy a few bales to have in the shed. I find it's the thing a sick animal loves to pick at. A nice bale of hay smells like the summer, cheers me up to open it.

I just always think these guys are missing the whole quality feed argument.

Conmaicne Mara

Asked our Stap facilitator who is a Teagasc adviser about nutritional information and how hay (not usually mentioned) compared to silage? He reckoned good hay was equal to poor silage.

moy83

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

Asked our Stap facilitator who is a Teagasc adviser about nutritional information and how hay (not usually mentioned) compared to silage? He reckoned good hay was equal to poor silage.

I don't know if thats fully true , but maybe he didnt see some of the bad silage I've seen

moy83

_Brian wrote: »

I agree completely, we always buy a few bales to have in the shed. I find it's the thing a sick animal loves to pick at. A nice bale of hay smells like the summer, cheers me up to open it.

I just always think these guys are missing the whole quality feed argument.

They would want to make the call on wrapping it earlier rather than later . There is no point wrapping stuff that was tossed out for 4/5 days and gone dry as snuff but got rained on IYKWIM .

Sam Kade

Most farmers nowadays haven't a clue how to save hay most of them bale it before it's fit.

Reggie.

not really haymaking weather around here so far

Conmaicne Mara

moy83 wrote: »

I don't know if thats fully true , but maybe he didnt see some of the bad silage I've seen

Neither do I, but seeing as I didn't know myself I wasn't in a great position to contradict him

moy83

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

Neither do I, but seeing as I didn't know myself I wasn't in a great position to contradict him

No harm at all to contradict an advisor . Our lad is grand but sometimes I think I know more from reading here than what he does about whats going on

Markcheese

Sam Kade wrote: »

Most farmers nowadays haven't a clue how to save hay most of them bale it before it's fit.

Think you've hit the nail on the head there.... There was stuff baled last year by guys who'd never done hay in their lives... And a lot of it a day or two too soon...

farm14

wouldn't outwintering stock on hay be cheaper than housing cattle? I have to say a lot of the hay in Ireland does be ****e. Italian ryegrass makes lovely hay. by outwintering stock you could cut costs. good hay stock do well on it.

agriman27

Hay has to be really really really fit for round baling!

sheebadog

I never had much time for hay until I came here.
Good (and I mean GOOD) hay has a place on any farm. Problem is good leafy green hay is almost impossible to make in Ireland. Better off wrapping it and ensuring quality.
Making hay for export at the minute that's outstanding quality.

bogman_bass

farm14 wrote: »

wouldn't outwintering stock on hay be cheaper than housing cattle? I have to say a lot of the hay in Ireland does be ****e. Italian ryegrass makes lovely hay. by outwintering stock you could cut costs. good hay stock do well on it.

and why cant you out winter with silage?

Sam Kade

sheebadog wrote: »

I never had much time for hay until I came here.
Good (and I mean GOOD) hay has a place on any farm. Problem is good leafy green hay is almost impossible to make in Ireland. Better off wrapping it and ensuring quality.
Making hay for export at the minute that's outstanding quality.

I made green hay last year that had plenty leaf, you can get good hay in Ireland once every 10-15 years maybe

Miname

bogman_bass wrote: »

and why cant you out winter with silage?

Hay, out-wintering, extensive farming, hereford, angus ; so much for bloody progress. Id have reasonable ground here and out winter a few but are all you lads not forgetting what its like dragging a tractor out to a ring feeder in the depths of winter with sh1te up to the floor and it spilling rain. I,m hoping to get a shot of bales for springing cows, pre-calving, everything else gets silage for handiness and i find a better result with stores.

Greengrass1

sheebadog wrote: »

I never had much time for hay until I came here.
Good (and I mean GOOD) hay has a place on any farm. Problem is good leafy green hay is almost impossible to make in Ireland. Better off wrapping it and ensuring quality.
Making hay for export at the minute that's outstanding quality.

Might make some hay from itailian next month if weather comes right. Made lovely stuff 8 yrs ago from itailian. Phone was hopping solid for days looking for some

farm14

bogman_bass wrote: »

and why cant you out winter with silage?

Ah well I wouldn't rule out silage but wouldn't the hay be a bit easier to transport with the loader bit quicker too u could also put 2 bales of hay on d loader if u had numbers! Be cheaper too. I'm not ruling out silage though but their are variables with both if you get me