Early silage making

case5130

Any one have any videos or links to silage making particular. Bale silage in the early days when it was bags not wrapped

dohc turbo2

coconnellz wrote: »

Best time of year to make silage DM content is at it highest might not get quantity but quality is more important!

I think he is looking for old clips of silage making

Farmer Pudsey

Heard a story wgere silage was made in the 50's. The pit was made and covered completely with earth no plastic supposed to have worked as well

case5130

Ya old story's or videos heard they used to roll the bales Into the bags by hand just wanted see wat it looked like ... Ya I heard that the dug a hole put the grass in and tramped it with horses before covering with earth

Bullocks

There is an old landlords house beside us that had a pit about 6 ' deep that they reckon was used for pitting silage . I never asked what they covered it with but it must've been a baxtard of a job forking up the stuff from the bottom

case5130

Ya I'd say ya wanna be fit to get the bottom foot out haha

satstheway

They had a round pit here in estate beside us. Never seen it though. Don't know if it's still there or not.

case5130

Watched this earlyer and wanted to see how the bales where made

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=c8JPo4b7y6o

Sam Kade

Milking in the 60's

Count Mondego

case5130 wrote: »

Watched this earlyer and wanted to see how the bales where made

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=c8JPo4b7y6o

Frank gave the range some rough poking there. I pity the wife.

case5130

Count Mondego wrote: »

Frank gave the range some rough poking there. I pity the wife.

Think he was single

Sam Kade

case5130 wrote: »

Think he was single

That explains it The fire was all he poked at night.

Count Mondego

case5130 wrote: »

Think he was single

I'd say that alright :-)

Sam Kade

Your man with the 40 high yielding cows must have been making a nice few bob back then.

Nekarsulm

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

Heard a story wgere silage was made in the 50's. The pit was made and covered completely with earth no plastic supposed to have worked as well

The father used to tell how they sealed the silage when they put up the first pit. Tied a hose pipe to the back axle of the Ford Ferguson and rolled for hours. Top layer turned into a kind of slurry and sealed the grass underneath

case5130

Any body any story's or snaps of bales been made back 80s or even story's

Base price

Someone posted a video a few months back showing bagged round bales. It could have been Nek but I am not sure.
A few farms near me in nc Dublin have concrete silage silos they must be 40 or 50 foot tall. Apparently it wasn't uncommon for them to explode :eek:

The bales were made the same way as they are today with a round baler but they used string instead of netting. I spend many an hour on the IH674 with a single spike drawing them into the yard for bagging. Oh the memories.

case5130

Base price wrote: »

Someone posted a video a few months back showing bagged round bales. It could have been Nek but I am not sure.
A few farms near me in nc Dublin have concrete silage silos they must be 40 or 50 foot tall. Apparently it wasn't uncommon for them to explode :eek:

Must be fun filling and emptying them 😳

Nekarsulm

Not me Base, but there was a thread a year ago or so,with a link to a film interviewing farmers in Monaghan in the early 80's

Base price

case5130 wrote: »

Any body any story's or snaps of bales been made back 80s or even story's

Jeez I feel really old now :rolleyes:

case5130

Base price wrote: »

Jeez I feel really old now :rolleyes:

U must have the story's so ðŸ˜ðŸ˜

Nekarsulm

Some people bagged them near the parlour, and ran a length of wavin from the milking machine, and used it to suck the air out of the bag before rolling the condom. Sorry, sealing ring off the wooden horn onto the bag.

case5130

Nekarsulm wrote: »

Some people bagged them near the parlour, and ran a length of wavin from the milking machine, and used it to suck the air out of the bag before rolling the condom. Sorry, sealing ring off the wooden horn onto the bag.

It's the wrapping process I'm interested in I just imagine it been like tying a knot on a shopping bag haha

Nekarsulm

There was no wrapping. You spiked the bale, lifted it off the ground and two people pulled a bag it. Back into final position and set it down. Gather the end of the bag and roll the sealing ring on. Gas buildup could escape, supposedly. But they usually blew up like balloons. You had to Watch for the ring popping off.

frazzledhome

Sam Kade wrote: »

Milking in the 60's

Excellent. great find. All the same rules apply today

zetecescort

hopefully these come out big enough to read. found the book in the attic a few years ago, like a forerunner to the likes of Moorepark with reports on various trials

case5130

Nekarsulm wrote: »

There was no wrapping. You spiked the bale, lifted it off the ground and two people pulled a bag it. Back into final position and set it down. Gather the end of the bag and roll the sealing ring on. Gas buildup could escape, supposedly. But they usually blew up like balloons. You had to Watch for the ring popping off.

Could u in theory reuse these bags and rings

Base price

Nekarsulm wrote: »

Some people bagged them near the parlour, and ran a length of wavin from the milking machine, and used it to suck the air out of the bag before rolling the condom. Sorry, sealing ring off the wooden horn onto the bag.

Ooh fancy operators in Cavan

Nekarsulm

No point trying really.clatty smelly job trying.
on a neighbours farm there was a shed about twelve foot square and six foot high. Mass concrete walls. A bank of earth up to the eves on one side. I was told the roof would be removed and cart loads of cut grass forked in. When it got full up, they put the horse up on it to tramp it down. A sacrifice layer of rushed was cut and packed down on top, then the roof refitted. In the winter you cut your way in through a small doorway and foddered away.

case5130

Nekarsulm wrote: »

No point trying really.clatty smelly job trying.
on a neighbours farm there was a shed about twelve foot square and six foot high. Mass concrete walls. A bank of earth up to the eves on one side. I was told the roof would be removed and cart loads of cut grass forked in. When it got full up, they put the horse up on it to tramp it down. A sacrifice layer of rushed was cut and packed down on top, then the roof refitted. In the winter you cut your way in through a small doorway and foddered away.

That's some hardship

mayota

Nekarsulm wrote: »

No point trying really.clatty smelly job trying.
on a neighbours farm there was a shed about twelve foot square and six foot high. Mass concrete walls. A bank of earth up to the eves on one side. I was told the roof would be removed and cart loads of cut grass forked in. When it got full up, they put the horse up on it to tramp it down. A sacrifice layer of rushed was cut and packed down on top, then the roof refitted. In the winter you cut your way in through a small doorway and foddered away.

We had one exactly as you describe at the home place, we called it the silo house. Must ask the aul lad when it was last used, I'd say the 50's. We levelled it about 15 years ago.

ABlur

case5130 wrote: »

Any body any story's or snaps of bales been made back 80s or even story's

https://youtu.be/wXEw4bcbsQ4

Bullocks

case5130 wrote: »

That's some hardship

Was asking the father about it there . The first year they made silage it was in a walled hay shed about 50' long . They had to fork it off the trailer outside and then fork it the 50' to the back of the shed . I was saying it must have been fair hardship . He reckoned it was a breeze compared to the few previous wet years turning hay by fork and ending up with crap fodder

case5130

That's when farming was tough haha

Base price

ABlur wrote: »

https://youtu.be/wXEw4bcbsQ4

A jaysus that's only from a couple of years ago
Most of the farmers around here get a few squares baled every year.
I get a local man to bale up 3 or 4 hundred squares every year. Handy to have for calves or a sick animal in isolation.

Regarding the early round bales. I am not a machinery woman but I do remember that the balers had belts in them that formed the bales and always seemed to give trouble. Welger balers were popular at that time. They wouldn't be as packed/filled as bales made nowdays by a Fusion.

Nekarsulm

Locally there were a few Fort balers.
A Fort baler and a Zetor 8045 was an outfit!

case5130

Ran a belt baler in Canada was impressed with it and how it packed the bale from the start and if u only had half a bale it was still a solid bale

20silkcut

Neighbour of mine here used to have his silage pit in a haggard beside his farm no concrete or run off channels back then you could put a silage pit where ever you wanted . The pit used to back up against a ditch as time went by the ditch and the trees in the ditch all rotted away.

My father used to help out with the hay on his brother in laws farm back years ago they used to do 80 acres of small square bales. That was the their entire forage crop no silage . They had three big hay barns.

Sam Kade

20silkcut wrote: »

Neighbour of mine here used to have his silage pit in a haggard beside his farm no concrete or run off channels back then you could put a silage pit where ever you wanted . The pit used to back up against a ditch as time went by the ditch and the trees in the ditch all rotted away.

My father used to help out with the hay on his brother in laws farm back years ago they used to do 80 acres of small square bales. That was the their entire forage crop no silage . They had three big hay barns.

I used to do square baling back in the 80's averaged 22k bales a year between hay and straw mostly hay.

raypallas

Sam Kade wrote:

I used to do square baling back in the 80's averaged 22k bales a year between hay and straw mostly hay.

And you probably made a handy few quid out of it. A neighbour here still has his mf square baler that he bought from new, used to do it on hire in 80's nd 90's still makes 2 or 300 a year for himself. This baler is almost like new!

frazzledhome

raypallas wrote: »

And you probably made a handy few quid out of it. A neighbour here still has his mf square baler that he bought from new, used to do it on hire in 80's nd 90's still makes 2 or 300 a year for himself. This baler is almost like new!

I hope it's not a 128. We had one brilliant in straw but pure useless in hay. 124 was smaller but better.

Sam Kade

raypallas wrote: »

And you probably made a handy few quid out of it. A neighbour here still has his mf square baler that he bought from new, used to do it on hire in 80's nd 90's still makes 2 or 300 a year for himself. This baler is almost like new!

Yeah, 18 pence a bale back then The round baler and wrapper came along then and killed it. I had a NH 377 baler very fast baler.

20silkcut

Sam Kade wrote: »

Milking in the 60's

Why has the prActice of cows grazing a silage pit fallen by the way side.?

Too much waste?

Must admit though it had its merits.

Also single and double chop silage why has that fallen out of favour so much?
Cutting straight from a standing crop has lots of advantages not least being more weather proof. Why was it never scaled up to wider cutting widths?

Farmer Pudsey

20silkcut wrote: »

Why has the prActice of cows grazing a silage pit fallen by the way side.?

Too much waste?

Must admit though it had its merits.

Also single and double chop silage why has that fallen out of favour so much?
Cutting straight from a standing crop has lots of advantages not least being more weather proof. Why was it never scaled up to wider cutting widths?

Mostly to do with runoff from yard. You had to have a roof over the cows anyway. As well no precision chop at the time and cows lost there teeth very early due to pulling silage out of clamp. Precision chop allows more silage into the way on.

trixi2011

20silkcut wrote: »

Why has the prActice of cows grazing a silage pit fallen by the way side.?

Too much waste?

Must admit though it had its merits.

Also single and double chop silage why has that fallen out of favour so much?
Cutting straight from a standing crop has lots of advantages not least being more weather proof. Why was it never scaled up to wider cutting widths?

Self feed is still been used by alot of low input dairy farms in the uk afaik

bogman_bass

Having done self feed for years I can tell you that it ain't east . A lot of forking silage out of the pit face for cows.

td5man

trixi2011 wrote: »

Self feed is still been used by alot of low input dairy farms in the uk afaik

Slurry storage and spreading regulations don't seem to be as strict over there.

mikefoxo

Not exactly what OP was looking for but quite interesting; fella zero-grazing in the fifties!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3pBTw4982E

Sam Kade

bogman_bass wrote: »

Having done self feed for years I can tell you that it ain't east . A lot of forking silage out of the pit face for cows.

But you were doing it all wrong you only need to move the fence up no forking whatsoever. We used to have a sleeper on the ground to stop them trampling any loose silage that fell down. The only disaster was if you had bales of hay on top of the silage pit and the cows were moving through the silage faster than the hay was used or straw.

dzer2

Sam Kade wrote: »

But you were doing it all wrong you only need to move the fence up no forking whatsoever. We used to have a sleeper on the ground to stop them trampling any loose silage that fell down. The only disaster was if you had bales of hay on top of the silage pit and the cows were moving through the silage faster than the hay was used or straw.

Ah Sam when the pit was as high as it was wide you had to fork down the top. It would go off if you forked down more then the cows would eat in a couple of days. Also if you got wet weather like at the moment forking down a heap would just get water logged.
I made a lift like a fork lift here and fitted a grab on it to lift down the top of the pit. You could lift down the full width of the pit and lay it down inside the feeders as it wasn't loosened so it lasted the week. We gave up pit silage in favour of wraps here as we had the man power and tractors to do it ourselves.

Nekarsulm

A bar across the face, suspended at the ends and hooked to the electric fence was probably the cleanest way of doing it. Move it a couple of inches a day, or whatever.

Until you got a cow with a horn who realised she could push the electrified bar with her horn and not get shocked..........