Square Baling + Silage Pit. Has Anyone Tried It?

TheClubMan

Well folks,

I was thinking of ways to save money money on the farm and one which sprang to mind was square baling silage and storing it on the silage pit and convering it. I have my own mower and tedder/rake so would I be saving money in the long term as I'm only paying for baling and it would be much tidier? Has anyone tried this? Does it preserve as well? I think I seen a thread here but can't find it. Let me know what you think.

eric prydz

TheClubMan wrote: »

Well folks,

I was thinking of ways to save money money on the farm and one which sprang to mind was square baling silage and storing it on the silage pit and convering it. I have my own mower and tedder/rake so would I be saving money in the long term as I'm only paying for baling and it would be much tidier? Has anyone tried this? Does it preserve as well? I think I seen a thread here but can't find it. Let me know what you think.

What way have you for handling the bales ?

Greengrass1

TheClubMan wrote: »

Well folks,

I was thinking of ways to save money money on the farm and one which sprang to mind was square baling silage and storing it on the silage pit and convering it. I have my own mower and tedder/rake so would I be saving money in the long term as I'm only paying for baling and it would be much tidier? Has anyone tried this? Does it preserve as well? I think I seen a thread here but can't find it. Let me know what you think.

Father did it 25 yrs ago when wrappers weren't heard of. Seen pictures. Looked top notch stuff.
Father said you would need it in batches.
Enough bakes for 4-5 days or less due to heating

moy83

TheClubMan wrote: »

Well folks,

I was thinking of ways to save money money on the farm and one which sprang to mind was square baling silage and storing it on the silage pit and convering it. I have my own mower and tedder/rake so would I be saving money in the long term as I'm only paying for baling and it would be much tidier? Has anyone tried this? Does it preserve as well? I think I seen a thread here but can't find it. Let me know what you think.

Are you talking about the big square bales ? What do they charge per bale and would it work out much cheaper than getting a wagon ?

Sam Kade

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Father did it 25 yrs ago when wrappers weren't heard of. Seen pictures. Looked top notch stuff.
Father said you would need it in batches.
Enough bakes for 4-5 days or less due to heating

Yes that would be the way to do it secondary heating in one big pit would be a disaster. When you add in handling extra plastic, labour, time etc it wouldn't be much of an advantage.

It was also done with round bales put plastic under the bales put 5-6 bales in a straight line then cover them with plastic with sand bags around the edges.

TheClubMan

eric prydz wrote: »

What way have you for handling the bales ?

Have a bale spike on the front of the loader. It'll do the job!

TheClubMan

moy83 wrote: »

Are you talking about the big square bales ? What do they charge per bale and would it work out much cheaper than getting a wagon ?

He big squares. Don't how much for square baling. 125 per acre here for wagon silage.

TheClubMan

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Father did it 25 yrs ago when wrappers weren't heard of. Seen pictures. Looked top notch stuff.
Father said you would need it in batches.
Enough bakes for 4-5 days or less due to heating

Is it possible for you to upload them? Can't find some anywhere! So I would need to divide a few different sections up is it?

eric prydz

TheClubMan wrote: »

Have a bale spike on the front of the loader. It'll do the job!

Is it a industrial loader ?

TheClubMan wrote: »

He big squares. Don't how much for square baling. 125 per acre here for wagon silage.

You should be able to get in a selfpropelled in to do the whole job for that sort of money

TheClubMan

Sam Kade wrote: »

Yes that would be the way to do it secondary heating in one big pit would be a disaster. When you add in handling extra plastic, labour, time etc it wouldn't be much of an advantage.

It was also done with round bales put plastic under the bales put 5-6 bales in a straight line then cover them with plastic with sand bags around the edges.

Would it be worth the effort do you think to save a few bob? Here I was thinking I had a brain wave!

moy83

TheClubMan wrote: »

He big squares. Don't how much for square baling. 125 per acre here for wagon silage.

Sounds dear compared to other prices qouted here . Is that with you cutting and tedding for him aswell ? I wonder would it bring his price down much if you were able to push it up so all he would be supplying was the wagon ?
I'm not sure how many square bales you would get to the acre , but personally I wouldn't see it working out cheap enough to go that route . Between handling them and making sure they are stacked tight enough to avoid poor preservation

Zr105

I dont think it would work, no matter how tight you try to pack them there will still be gaps, as although the sides and tops and bottom are normally fairly square there's a bit of a roundness to the ends, and the minute you'd open the cover the air would go straight back through the "pit"

Also big squares are a serious weight and i wouldn't think bailing will work out that much cheaper than a harvester or wagon to be honest..

lakill Farm

why not buy a small wagon and hire a lad to push up for you

keep going

Was looking at agbags abit ago and came across tube wrappers wrapping big bales looks the job but seems a wagon would be handier

Sam Kade

TheClubMan wrote: »

Would it be worth the effort do you think to save a few bob? Here I was thinking I had a brain wave!

You could try it out on a small scale first and see how it goes. I was going to try it with round bales one time but I bought a wrapper instead. Still it would be interesting to try it out with a few bales to see how they preserve and what the plastic would cost.

C0N0R

keep going wrote: »

Was looking at agbags abit ago and came across tube wrappers wrapping big bales looks the job but seems a wagon would be handier

Tube wrappers are some job if you ask me, only downside is the bales can't be stacked or thrown in small corners round the yard like alot of bales are here. Handles both squares and rounds.

st1979

Your wagon man is on cracking or else his customers are.
But remember you are going to mow so that comes off price. then you might push silage up if you can. then all you need is the wagon man. Think 60 would be enough for that

st1979

Sorry meant crack

_Brian

C0N0R wrote: »

Tube wrappers are some job if you ask me, only downside is the bales can't be stacked or thrown in small corners round the yard like alot of bales are here. Handles both squares and rounds.

Tube wrappers are very popular in France, actually I don't think I've ever seen individually wrapped bales there.
It definitely looks like a good job.

Justjens

Cousins used to make bales that way in the UK 20 years ago.

Sheet of plastic on the ground, stack your bale, another sheet over the top and somehow seal the two sheets together, (think they split a 4" sewer pipe and stuffed the two sheets into it) then hook up a vacuum pump and Bob's your uncle.

I'd say you'd want to come back often enough and suck out any air, and reseal after you've removed a few bales and vacuum again.

blue5000

Could you put big square bales in the bottom of a walled pit, maybe 2 rows deep and put a precision chop layer of grass on top under plastic to seal it?

Zr105

I'm not over convinced on tube wrappers. Ok it may save on plastic, but other than that there's no major advantage.

200 odd bales stacked 2or 3 rows high doesn't take up all that much room, 200bales in straight line is gona be 800ft long. Ok you could split it into a couple of runs but thats still a lot of room.

With normal bales if you only need a few to start off its no problem pull as many or as little out of stack as needed. With the tube once you take the first one out the seal is broken and no matter how hard you try your not likely to get it sealed up again.

Then add ontop of that you have to drive up the same line a couple hundred times during a wet winter, the edge of the field will be absolutely ploughed...

Pacoa

Take a look at the pictures at the bottom of this page.

http://sinchbalefeeders.com.au/square_bale_silage