Whole crop

Reggie.

Here's the story.
Neighbour here has a section of his barley field badly lodged.
He's not gotta even bother trying to combine it but was thinking of mowing it and baling and wrapping it as whole crop.

Is this a good idea/job. Has anyone done it this way or how is it done...extra wrapping or whatever?

visatorro

Reggie. wrote: »

Here's the story.
Neighbour here has a section of his barley field badly lodged.
He's not gotta even bother trying to combine it but was thinking of mowing it and baling and wrapping it as whole crop.

Is this a good idea/job. Has anyone done it this way or how is it done...extra wrapping or whatever?

Half thinking of doing something similar here, but think it was mahoney_j that said baling whole crop didn't work out that well. Would be an expensive experiment

epfff

Reggie. wrote: »

Here's the story.
Neighbour here has a section of his barley field badly lodged.
He's not gotta even bother trying to combine it but was thinking of mowing it and baling and wrapping it as whole crop.

Is this a good idea/job. Has anyone done it this way or how is it done...extra wrapping or whatever?

If grain is very ripe and no grass through it will remain hard and pass through stock that eat it
So i would be inclined to say cut it a little damp and hope
It would work best in pit with grass over under where it would soak up moisture around it and soften grain

td5man

Reggie. wrote: »

Here's the story.
Neighbour here has a section of his barley field badly lodged.
He's not gotta even bother trying to combine it but was thinking of mowing it and baling and wrapping it as whole crop.

Is this a good idea/job. Has anyone done it this way or how is it done...extra wrapping or whatever?

Wrap it well and stack on top of grass bales to keep the rats away from.
If it's ripe you might lose some of the grain.

Mad4simmental

Don't do what sumone around here done & used a conditioner mower, lol

st1979

mow and bale in the rain not to hard with this weather. grain will go big and juicy. done it years ago. rats enjoyed

Reggie.

epfff wrote: »

If grain is very ripe and no grass through it will remain hard and pass through stock that eat it
So i would be inclined to say cut it a little damp and hope
It would work best in pit with grass over under where it would soak up moisture around it and soften grain

There's plenty of grass through this section of it

mahoney_j

Moisture proab gone too low now.no way I'd consider mowing and wrapping,grain losses would be too high and also cause grain wouldn't be cracked it would just pass through the cows undigested.wraps would Lso be easily pierced by straw and birds and spoilage high.id be slow to take it unless you could pit it and cut with wc header fitted with cracker.mousture would need to be 30 to 35% plus

Greengrass1

Mad4simmental wrote: »

Don't do what sumone around here done & used a conditioner mower, lol

We mowed it with conditioner before.
Did a good job

Reggie.

Mad4simmental wrote: »

Don't do what sumone around here done & used a conditioner mower, lol

He was going to do it with a disc mower

mahoney_j

Greengrass1 wrote: »

We mowed it with conditioner before.
Did a good job

Def not,grain loss too high and grain too ripe at this stage.itll do a clean job cutting it and that's it

visatorro

mahoney_j wrote: »

Def not,grain loss too high and grain too ripe at this stage.itll do a clean job cutting it and that's it

If grain is hard is there any point trying to bale it?

mahoney_j

visatorro wrote: »

If grain is hard is there any point trying to bale it?

No way ,stock won't be able to digest it

Zr105

Id agree with the lads, its kinda pointless now, whole crop would be done around 30% and depending how ripe it is it could be down under 20% by now. Even the crimper in a spfh will struggle to do anything with the grain at this stage to be honest. And being that it's lodged this is all basing it that there is i fact any grain left? Ie heads haven't been knocked off or eaten by crows...

Greengrass1

mahoney_j wrote: »

Def not,grain loss too high and grain too ripe at this stage.itll do a clean job cutting it and that's it

We had proper whole crop at the time. Still soft.
Didn't loose much in field but rats loved the bales

moy83

Im going cutting our biteen of oats next week , its still green . Ill throw up a pic tomorrow . Probably cut it and bale it in the same day . Only a half acre or so , but they will be tasty

Reggie.

So what are his options then

moy83

Reggie. wrote: »

So what are his options then

Can it be treated with anything to soften it up and make it digestible ?

Reggie.

moy83 wrote: »

Can it be treated with anything to soften it up and make it digestible ?

No idea as this whole crop stuff is no man's land to me

darragh_haven

Could it be mown. Picked up with a self propelled with a corn cracker and pit it with grass? Would that work?

Reggie.

darragh_haven wrote: »

Could it be mown. Picked up with a self propelled with a corn cracker and pit it with grass? Would that work?

No pit only bales for this man. Plough might be the only thing here

Zr105

Reggie. wrote: »

So what are his options then

Either crack on and try combine it or plough it... Normally combine will manage to get it if you cut it all one way, cant remember wether its heads first or straw first? Itd want to be absolutely steam rolled altogether to not at least have a crack at it with combine...

larrymiller

Lad here had lodged barley about 3 weeks ago and sprayed round up on it to kill the green stuff growing up through it .doesn't look half bad now

Mad4simmental

Greengrass1 wrote: »

We had proper whole crop at the time. Still soft.
Didn't loose much in field but rats loved the bales

That's ok, he could have done that 4/6 weeks ago but it got lodged before the combine got to it so he mowed it. But with a conditioner mower and lost %90 of the grain on the ground. But as Mahoney allreddy said its gone to fare at this stage anyway and is no better than wraped straw.

When it's gone this far it needs to pass true a cracker box so the cows can digest it. Otherwise you will just be spredding it in the slurry.

trixi2011

you can treat whole crop with ammonia when it to ripe, would need to be injected into bales. Unless it was a real big area he is probably better off mulching it

case956tom

Mad4simmental wrote: »

Don't do what sumone around here done & used a conditioner mower, lol

local lad done used a conditioner mower recently and raked it too lost most of the grains,fed the crows for over a week.:rolleyes: