Pit of round bale silage

Tomjim

Just wondering if you stacked round bales neatly could you cover with a sheet of plastic instead of wrapping the bales - would it be successful?

SeanPuddin

Our place has been doing it that way for years. The only way we reckon with the savings

Tomjim

SeanPuddin wrote: »

Our place has been doing it that way for years. The only way we reckon with the savings

If it orks why are more people not at it?

frazzledhome

1. How do you seal, surely lot of air?
2 Why not do regular silage if pit is available, effluent?

Brown Podzol

At a farm walk a no. of years ago the farmer was making pit from large square bales. Pit lined and plastic folded over and down the face. Next batch was pit up against the previous batch but the plastic was left in place but brought up behind the new batch and folded over again. So each batch was separate and sealed with two layers of plastic between each batch. Said it worked fine, was made in an old silage pit.

SeanPuddin

Top is sealed by top layer and down sides like normal. Easier to manage with bales as with the weight they turn into square bales driving out all the air from the gaps.

cute geoge

SeanPuddin wrote: »

Top is sealed by top layer and down sides like normal. Easier to manage with bales as with the weight they turn into square bales driving out all the air from the gaps.

GO AGAIN

Cow Porter

Can you take a picture? Worth a thousand words

agriman27

Wonder would they be as good quality as wrapped bales , I'd imagine that good dry wilted bales could be a disaster hard enough to keep them right when wrapping them. I often thought about the idea too, could it be possible to suck out the air with a vacuum cleaner or a leaf blower yoke, you could have vacuum packed bales

Genghis Cant

SeanPuddin wrote: »

Top is sealed by top layer and down sides like normal. Easier to manage with bales as with the weight they turn into square bales driving out all the air from the gaps.

Would you not need a way of handling effluent the same as a pit?

Brown Podzol

agriman27 wrote: »

Wonder would they be as good quality as wrapped bales , I'd imagine that good dry wilted bales could be a disaster hard enough to keep them right when wrapping them. I often thought about the idea too, could it be possible to suck out the air with a vacuum cleaner or a leaf blower yoke, you could have vacuum packed bales

Or vacuum tanker. Used to do that with bagged round bales before the wrapper arrived on the scene.

agriman27

Brown Podzol wrote: »

At a farm walk a no. of years ago the farmer was making pit from large square bales. Pit lined and plastic folded over and down the face. Next batch was pit up against the previous batch but the plastic was left in place but brought up behind the new batch and folded over again. So each batch was separate and sealed with two layers of plastic between each batch. Said it worked fine, was made in an old silage pit.

I'd say that would be a class job and a lot cheaper than buying rolls of wrap

Tomjim

and you would not have to pay someone to wrap the bales

how come there are not more people doing it

Brown Podzol

agriman27 wrote: »

I'd say that would be a class job and a lot cheaper than buying rolls of wrap

Yea. Much easier haul unwrapped large square bales distance on a trailer and feed out I imagine would be easier feeding the slices. And much less rubbish to dispose of.

Reggie.

Brown Podzol wrote: »

Yea. Much easier haul unwrapped large square bales distance on a trailer and feed out I imagine would be easier feeding the slices. And much less rubbish to dispose of.

+1

trixi2011

Have seen this done quite a quite a bit with big squares. Ones I saw were made on a paddock , bales stacked and a sheet of plastic pulled over them then lime was used to weight down the cover. Bales need to be used quickly once opened as they will heat.

moy83

trixi2011 wrote: »

Have seen this done quite a quite a bit with big squares. Ones I saw were made on a paddock , bales stacked and a sheet of plastic pulled over them then lime was used to weight down the cover. Bales need to be used quickly once opened as they will heat.

Any particular reason lime was used ?

trixi2011

moy83 wrote: »

Any particular reason lime was used ?

Better seal than tyres, was in nz and they seemed to use lime a lot even on normal pits.

moy83

trixi2011 wrote: »

Better seal than tyres, was in nz and they seemed to use lime a lot even on normal pits.

It would probably be good stuff if you could throw it out to the sides until the pit was finished and then incorporate it with dung maybe

trixi2011

moy83 wrote: »

It would probably be good stuff if you could throw it out to the sides until the pit was finished and then incorporate it with dung maybe

was great for forming a tight seal and better then dung as it was really easy to flick off the cover when opening. It didn't matter if it got on the silage either as it just a bit of extra calcium.

sucklerfarmer

Has anyone any pictures of round bale silage without traditional wrapping sealed in a silage pit. Many people are mentioning using square bales of silage and covering these, however no big square baler near me. The biggest cost in making round bales is the wrapping and plastic. A farmer could afford to buy a second hand round baler and make round bale silage if he did not have to wrap each bale.

Just wondering is it a viable option to stack round bale
silage in rows and put plastic over the rows

J.O. Farmer

I wouldn't recommend buying a round baler to make silage like that. If you don't want the cost of a wrapper the baler your buying will probably break your heart with breakdowns and the time and money used will more than make up for any saving.

Deepsouthwest

sucklerfarmer wrote: »

Has anyone any pictures of round bale silage without traditional wrapping sealed in a silage pit. Many people are mentioning using square bales of silage and covering these, however no big square baler near me. The biggest cost in making round bales is the wrapping and plastic. A farmer could afford to buy a second hand round baler and make round bale silage if he did not have to wrap each bale.

Just wondering is it a viable option to stack round bale
silage in rows and put plastic over the rows

There is no way I could see pitting round unwrapped bales and covering with like a silage pit working. Even if u covered them with a heap of grass and then put the plastic over, ud still have the air underneath them. Forget about it, wrap them and move on!

Markcheese

SeanPuddin wrote: »

Top is sealed by top layer and down sides like normal. Easier to manage with bales as with the weight they turn into square bales driving out all the air from the gaps.

I'm not sure i understand that.
Is Sean saying he uses round bales ? and then squashes them square ? What goes on top of the top layer of plastic to squash down the top layer of bales ? In a pit with side walls ?
How wet are your bales that they'd distort so much ? (have seen good well wilted grass clover bales getting very squished looking)
Would love to see a few photos ?