Best way to open round silage bales

Gilally

Can anyone advise best way to cut open round silage bails.

We have never used this type of fodder before.

Thanks

Miname

its like a cadburys cream egg, everyone does it there own way. personally i start at the nearest point to me and cut in no particular direction.

visatorro

good Stanley knife I find is best. what have you for handling them?

Paudee

• Cut a 3/4 of a circle into the side facing you leaving the bottom 1/4 attached.
• Stick loader in opening you have just cut.
• Transport to where you will feed.
• Cut similar circle on side opposite to loader going 99% of the way around stopping at the bottom corner
• Cut along the length of one side of the bale near the underside joining the two circles you cut previously.
• Peel off plastic and wrap, should be all attached and come off as one whole piece.

I'll never make a cook book author.

Kovu

We use a converted antique hay-knife so it looks a bit like this.- A rudimentary machete!

Then slit the base completely around roughly 2-3 inches from the bottom, the closer to the ground the better.

Then cut from the centre on top finishing to join with the lower slit. Easy then to peel it back and fold and roll.


(This is also a great tool for cutting cows tails or simply waving it in the air like a rambo-esque madman when people are in the yard and you don't want them there)

Paudee

There's no two ways about it, I should probably be doing something constructive.

Reggie.

Paudee wrote: »

• Cut a 3/4 of a circle into the side facing you leaving the bottom 1/4 attached.
• Stick loader in opening you have just cut.
• Transport to where you will feed.
• Cut similar circle on side opposite to loader going 99% of the way around stopping at the bottom corner
• Cut along the length of one side of the bale near the underside joining the two circles you cut previously.
• Peel off plastic and wrap, should be all attached and come off as one whole piece.

I'll never make a cook book author.

Same as that

Sam Kade

I just take the bale from the stack drop it on the ground cut a cross from end to end and side to side pull the plastic down and it will come off when the bale is lifted.

Greengrass1

Take out of stack coukd be ten otmr so bales.
Cut open front bit where loader picked them up.
Gently run knife over plastic, cut other side of bale l.
Peel off plastic.
Pick up bale with grab drop it on its end then. Unwind net off bale.
Walla. No silage left on net and no silage juice falling on your arms or clothes trying to open net with bale on loader

Brass Tag

If you have a total of three bales or more to feed over the whole winter you need the following.
1. 100 hp tractor (new preferably) complete with soft ride loader.
2. Bale handler / opener attachment for said loader.

Now you can from the comfort of your air conditioned cab, pick up and transport bale to feeding area. Cut and remove plastic and net wrap. Place same in designated storage area. Dispense bale to cattle at feed barrier.
Alight from tractor without dirt or smell on your hands. Retire to study to fill in form
higher education grantðŸ˜

smokey-fitz

Up, across and down. Peel like a banana then lift and go.

Its a bale, no point in getting to technical about it.

Reggie.

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Take out of stack coukd be ten otmr so bales.
Cut open front bit where loader picked them up.
Gently run knife over plastic, cut other side of bale l.
Peel off plastic.
Pick up bale with grab drop it on its end then. Unwind net off bale.
Walla. No silage left on net and no silage juice falling on your arms or clothes trying to open net with bale on loader

That way is handy for lining a few in front of a barrier so you can peel small pieces off at a time

mf240

Take of the plastic first and the netwrap second.

farmerjj

Gilally wrote: »

Can anyone advise best way to cut open round silage bails.

We have never used this type of fodder before.

Thanks

Take plastic off then twine/netting.:D

feck beating to it

Base price

The way I do it -
Pick up bale on forks and transport to location.
Cut the plastic around the bale nearest the forks.
Cut a slit down the length of the bale and remove the plastic.
Cut a slit down the length of the wrap on the underside at arms length. Do not stand or lean under the bale. Remove the wrap.
Drop the bale and you are left with the circular disc of wrap on the forks.
I have a nice sharp pocket knife that I use. Stanley knife will do but I don't like them.

Farrell

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Take out of stack coukd be ten otmr so bales.
Cut open front bit where loader picked them up.
Gently run knife over plastic, cut other side of bale l.
Peel off plastic.
Pick up bale with grab drop it on its end then. Unwind net off bale.
Walla. No silage left on net and no silage juice falling on your arms or clothes trying to open net with bale on loader

Find it easier taking off net when the bale is in the spike.
Chopped bales were great cut net on bottom & it just falls clean

Milked out

Take bale from stack, cut off the plastic on the end, tip on the end, as you are lifting the spike out of the bale tilt it out so it catches the plastic as it comes out, hop down pull off netting job done. hate bales

severeoversteer

tanco bale shear takes the misery out of feeding silage





and don't say you like the misery!!!!!



with the bale shear it makes it easier than pit silage, can feed 10 bales in less than 10 minutes from the seat of the tractor

Reggie.

severeoversteer wrote: »

tanco bale shear takes the misery out of feeding silage





and don't say you like the misery!!!!!



with the bale shear it makes it easier than pit silage, can feed 10 bales in less than 10 minutes from the seat of the tractor

I like the misery

Greengrass1

Farrell wrote: »

Find it easier taking off net when the bale is in the spike.
Chopped bales were great cut net on bottom & it just falls clean

Used to always do it that way but got fed up with the bale falling on the netting and getting destroyed pulling out tge netting

Base price

severeoversteer wrote: »

tanco bale shear takes the misery out of feeding silage





and don't say you like the misery!!!!!



with the bale shear it makes it easier than pit silage, can feed 10 bales in less than 10 minutes from the seat of the tractor

Good idea but not much use in a round feeder.

ganmo

we use a stanley craft knives, sharp not too heavy in your pocket and not as awkward as the normal stanleys

Count Mondego

Ye all take off the black stuff???? My lads ayte through it.

Charliebull

Treat it like a pair of knickers , flitter the fcuker off whatever way you can

keep going

Please stop all this bale talk has me coming out in hives.only just getting over the frazzles bale stack pictures and probably the nightmares will come back tonight

Base price

Never had these problems with the pit.
Other than covering it on a windy day when the plastic was blowing into the next parish. Getting drowned with the dirty rotten slop from the tyres and having sore arms from throwing same onto it. Remembering to keep your mouth closed in case you got Weils disease.
Stripping your clothes off outside the house cause you smelled like the dead lorry, and having to make sure that there was no undue male attention while peeling off said clothes.
And then the joy of opening the pit.
Throwing the same dirty fecking tyres to one side, while remembering to keep your mouth closed and knowing that no matter what rain gear you wore, you would still get skitted with the dirty rotten slop that resides in tyres.
TBH I prefer the bales

J.O. Farmer

Take the bale out onto wherever you want to open it and drop on its side.
Cut a cross in 1 end cut across the top and another cross in the 2nd end.
Pull the plastic down off the bale and move the bale to where you're feeding it.
If you're putting it within reach of cattle at a feed barrier make sure to keep the end rather than the side facing the barrier. Otherwise you'll have the arms pulled of yourself trying to fork silage out of a big lump once the cattle have ate the first half of the bale.
To cut off the net lift the bale high enough if you can so you can comfortably cut close to the bottom and pull the mesh out from under the bale and up on each side before dropping. If it's twine you'll be able to pull it out after if you cut it all the way across.
If you're putting the bale in a round feeder or forking it all to the cattle drop it on its end and you can wind the mesh off.

Count Mondego

Base price wrote: »

Getting drowned with the dirty rotten slop from the tyres and having sore arms from throwing same onto it. Remembering to keep your mouth closed in case you got Weils disease.

That stuff is vile. You could have thrown 200 tyres and the last one would get ya. Still, pit costs me 100 and acre and bales would be 200 so I'll be putting up with it for another while.

Timmaay

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Used to always do it that way but got fed up with the bale falling on the netting and getting destroyed pulling out tge netting

Yeh pure pain in the hole then with the netting stuck under the silage. Your way GG of throwing the bale up on its flat side and unwinding the netting is the only way I'd ever do it now.

Farmer Pudsey

Cut circle around end of bale. Reverse in with bale spike lift bale (this works with stacks two high as usuall second bale stay insitu) reverse it back towards feed barrier. cut around end facing barrier and remove plastic. Quickly remove netting and reverse in bale. As they are chopped one in nine or ten will crumble in you as you remove net.

The one that falls on end off stack cut plastic off upper end tip onto side with bale spike and repeat normal process. Use a kitchen knife that I bought in Aldi or Lidl it hi-vis green so easy to find. Edge it with a chefs file. It has a cover over blade.

lefthooker

Have a few opinions when it comes to bales.
Firstly I hate getting up and down out of the tractor seat too often. Secondly if you drop off the bale you'll never get it on the grab like when you pick it out of the stack.
So with that in mind when I drive out to the stack I open whatever bales I intend to use.
Cut a semi circle on the bottom of the face of the bale and do the exact opposite on the rear.
Then cut along the top and down the face and peel back to expose face.
Drive in and close grab, holds the plastic in place till I get to the wraps bin.
Open grab and plastic falls off. Tadaa.
Drive onto passage, bale around 3ft off ground and slit net wrap on the side. Easy enough to then pull the wrap off from the far side

Zr105

Base price wrote: »

Never had these problems with the pit.
Other than covering it on a windy day when the plastic was blowing into the next parish. Getting drowned with the dirty rotten slop from the tyres and having sore arms from throwing same onto it. Remembering to keep your mouth closed in case you got Weils disease.
Stripping your clothes off outside the house cause you smelled like the dead lorry, and having to make sure that there was no undue male attention while peeling off said clothes.
And then the joy of opening the pit.
Throwing the same dirty fecking tyres to one side, while remembering to keep your mouth closed and knowing that no matter what rain gear you wore, you would still get skitted with the dirty rotten slop that resides in tyres.
TBH I prefer the bales

Your covering it the hard way

Roll out covers across put, make sure their positioned well, then get 3-4 ppl and roll the covers back up along the pit. Get tractor/loader get fork full of tyres with same, shake loader to remove dirty slop water, drive into pit tip tires at edge of plastic, roll cover out a bit and repeat.
Minimal handling of tires and most of the slop left behind.

When opening leave sheer grab up against the face and drop tires into it, don't throw em, the harder you throw them the harder the water bounces back out...

I'd take throwing a row or 2 of tires off and rolling back the cover once or twice a week over opening bales every day and ending up stinking of silage no matter what you do. And ya generally end up slapped in the face with ether the plastic or the netting on that wet windy day that already has you soaked through...

As for opening bales cut around the round of the bale in the middle and pull the wrap off either side. No fear of cutting the net open by accident that way

frazzledhome

keep going wrote: »

Please stop all this bale talk has me coming out in hives.only just getting over the frazzles bale stack pictures and probably the nightmares will come back tonight

That was only one stack:( Phucing bales everywhere thinking of a yoke for loading shovel

Greengrass1

frazzledhome wrote: »

That was only one stack:( Phucing bales everywhere thinking of a yoke for loading shovel

Have ye seen the tanco multishear?

Sami23

Out of interest when ye are leaving the bales at feed barriers do ye leave them on their ends or lying flat like they come out of baler ?
Also do ye leave them right up against the barrier or slighty back from it ?

Mine are left on flat slightly back from barrier to prevent too much being pulled into slats.

Reggie.

Sami23 wrote: »

Out of interest when ye are leaving the bales at feed barriers do ye leave them on their ends or lying flat like they come out of baler ?
Also do ye leave them right up against the barrier or slighty back from it ?

Mine are left on flat slightly back from barrier to prevent too much being pulled into slats.

On the end is the best

Farmer Pudsey

On the flat not too far back. If too far back bales are in front of pens too long. like cattte to have bales in front of them finished in 48 hours idealy.

frazzledhome

Line up end to end and refill when gone with drys, milkers second day

eeeee

When on its end on the bale lifter, cut the bottom circle out. Put out then lift the rest of the plastic up like a skirt. The netting can be used to tie the wrap down to keep bale fresh if you're only feeding a few.

Zr105

Sami23 wrote: »

Out of interest when ye are leaving the bales at feed barriers do ye leave them on their ends or lying flat like they come out of baler ?
Also do ye leave them right up against the barrier or slighty back from it ?

Mine are left on flat slightly back from barrier to prevent too much being pulled into slats.

Normally spread them out so that they only have enough for 24hrs, much easier to keep it out of tanks that way and keep fresh silage to them the hole time

grazeaway

All depends on what you are using to feed. Use a front loader and pike with a spike.

Usually do 1 of ways.

1. Lift bale to feed barrier and tilt slightly forward about 2 foot off the ground.
2. Get of and cut back plastic, starting at side nearest to cab cut almost all the way around but leave a bit at the bottom.
3. Cut across the top and down the front.
4. Peel off the plastic and then bring around and behind the pike and loader frame.
5. Tilt the pike back to keep the plastic in place.
6. Unwind the netting from the bale.
7. Use the loader to the shake out the bale.
   
   Second way is the same as above but instead of shaking out the bale I drop it on its flat end then turn it onto its round side by the barrier then use the loader to un wind it backwards along the barrier.

simx

usually bring in and leave up on end like a barrel, cut a slit up one side across top and down the other side, then lift off plastic, leave down again the same way and wind odd netwrap, then flip, pull and throw it about into the cattle

stanflt

Just like that

Limestone Cowboy

stanflt wrote: »

Just like that

That's lovely looking stuff in that bale Stan

adne

stanflt wrote: »

Just like that

Tobacco is it

Dunedin

severeoversteer wrote: »

tanco bale shear takes the misery out of feeding silage





and don't say you like the misery!!!!!



with the bale shear it makes it easier than pit silage, can feed 10 bales in less than 10 minutes from the seat of the tractor

How much are they?

severeoversteer

Dunedin wrote: »

How much are they?

3300 new I think

there does be the odd one for sale second hand

lads sell them because you need a fairly substantial tractor for them, have mine on a 170hp tractor with quicke loader

Dunedin

severeoversteer wrote: »

3300 new I think

there does be the odd one for sale second hand

lads sell them because you need a fairly substantial tractor for them, have mine on a 170hp tractor with quicke loader

What hp would you need

grazeaway

Dunedin wrote: »

What hp would you need

It more the ballast and hydraulic power needed to cut the bale. Most I have seen are on diggers or loaders

MIKEKC

How can the cost of bale silage be justified? Handy is the most usual answer with no waste, but at a cost. pit silage costs e110 inc. vat. bales e11 for cut + bale. Plastic e3,50 transport e2,00 total. e 16,50. At 14 bales per acre total e231. I know you can take out paddocks as required, but some guys with fairly big acreage are making all bales

Farmer Pudsey

MIKEKC wrote: »

How can the cost of bale silage be justified? Handy is the most usual answer with no waste, but at a cost. pit silage costs e110 inc. vat. bales e11 for cut + bale. Plastic e3,50 transport e2,00 total. e 16,50. At 14 bales per acre total e231. I know you can take out paddocks as required, but some guys with fairly big acreage are making all bales

First off cost of bale silage 7.5 to bale and wrap, 2.5/bale to cut, 2.6 for plastic transport less than 1 euro/bale in my case. Total cost excluding fertlizer is 13.50/bale. Average crops are about 11 bales/acre. So at present 135/acre. Intend to get disc mower to reducing cutting cost as I see it would be possible to reduce this to below 1.5/bale.

Know very few contractors that will do pit at 110/acre for my size farm. I would also need to close and cut my silage in one lot. To maximise production I use Hybrids to get 3 cuts and a contractor would want to cut and pit in one day for my size farm with no wilt. It has been known for pit contractors to cut and pit in wet conditions.

You failed to factor in cost of slab would that save 1-2 euro/bale over its lifetime. And a pit needs to be covered it would be at least equivlent to 1 euro/bale. As well can feed silage from bales with the rear of a 60HP 2WD. 30 year old tractor very fast. To feed a pit I need a loader and shear grab etc.

IMO the different in cost is negible when waste silage is taken into account