Excess Silage what to do

galwayhillbilly

Ok lads I was vey late cutting meadows this year as I was hoping for hay, bit the bullet in August an cut bale and wrapped everything, ended up with a good few excess bales.
I put them up for sale @€;20 a bale and no takers, reduced to 18 and no phone call.

The way I see it I have 4 choices
1. reduce the price again and possibly take a loss
2. Take a gamble and wait until spring and pray for a long winter
3. Buy in some animals to eat the stuff and sell on again in spring
4. Keep the bales in good condition and don't bother with saving any fodder next year

Option 1. I might still get no takers or worse I end up selling at a loss and a few months later loads of people looking for fodder because I panicked and jumped too soon

Option 2 If we have a mild spring I don't get to sell any bales and I will be hard pressed to pay the contractor or some other bill

Option 3 I possibly will have to borrow or get an overdraft to buy the animals, they would have to be young enough because they will be out-wintered and I don't want my land destroyed. Also it will leave me very short of cash for Christmas etc

Option 4. As I have my fields designated as traditional hay meadow. I don't think I have any choice but to harvest them as fodder also the grass is hard enough to manage at my low stocking density without adding another 10 acres to the mix. I suppose I could sell them as meadow but a lot of meadows went unsold around us this year

I am leaning towards 3
What should I buy?
They would have to use up 50 odd bales of silage/haylage probably medium quality, over period from October/November to possibly April and with the minimum concentrates.

I am thinking calves just off milk light on the land and easy enough to manage labour wise. do I go for heifers or bulls?

how many would I need?

I might need to go for dairy bulls in order to be able to afford to buy enough of them, but is there any return in selling them as stores in the spring?

I also thought about store lambs, but I can't imagine how many you would need to get them to eat 50 bales of silage.
The principle objective here is to avoid a loss on the silage harvest but it would be preferable to have a bit of a margin from that much work

lakill Farm

would the contractor take half the 50 bales (ie 25) to cover him making the excess bales and you pay him for the rest.

that way, your bill is the same amount, contractor is paid and only 25 bales to sell

20silkcut

I am in the exact same position had a huge excess from. 2014 didn't make any forage this year. Bought in a few extra calves.

Am currently flat broke .

Waiting for the envelopes .

It might pay off in the end but at this moment those extra calves have me broke.

20silkcut

This is not a good time of year to be selling bales.

Usually in my experience Christmas is when bales really get moving

galwayhillbilly

lakill Farm wrote: »

would the contractor take half the 50 bales (ie 25) to cover him making the excess bales and you pay him for the rest.

that way, your bill is the same amount, contractor is paid and only 25 bales to sell

I don't think he farms unfortunately

galwayhillbilly

20silkcut wrote: »

This is not a good time of year to be selling bales.

Usually in my experience Christmas is when bales really get moving

Maybe I can hold out until then and buy stock then if I need to

galwayhillbilly

20silkcut wrote: »

I am in the exact same position had a huge excess from. 2014 didn't make any forage this year. Bought in a few extra calves.

Am currently flat broke .

Waiting for the envelopes .

It might pay off in the end but at this moment those extra calves have me broke.

Why have they you broke? too much money tied up? too much money spent on feed? or not able to get a return by selling now? all of the above? or some other reason?
I hope not to over-stretch myself to buy them and they wont be getting much meal and they will be sold at the drop of a hat if the real boss says she needs cash, so what are the pitfalls?

Bigus

Have a look at the long term weather forum here on boards , main man MT hints at 2009/10 winter.

20silkcut

galwayhillbilly wrote: »

Why have they you broke? too much money tied up? too much money spent on feed? or not able to get a return by selling now? all of the above? or some other reason?
I hope not to over-stretch myself to buy them and they wont be getting much meal and they will be sold at the drop of a hat if the real boss says she needs cash, so what are the pitfalls?

In fairness if I sold them now they would make at least €100 per head more than I paid for them back in March.

I did over stretch myself a bit to buy them and that has led to my current cash flow difficulties. But look you could always sell stock if you got stuck.
The money doesn't dissappear.
It's not a massive risk to buy a few calves provided you have the time to mind them.

But definitely silage does not start shifting till December. I wouldn't get too worried about not getting any offers at this stage. Cattle are still grazing.
Definitely lowering the price of the bales won't help. Unless you want to attract chancers and cheapskates.

50HX

hold tough for another 6 weeks - it has all the makings of an early winter with what has fallen since Fri

mind them as best you can - rat bait etc and you could sell them early in the new year

would rather be looking at it than for it

mf240

Think id hang onto them.

Could be all wanted yet.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056933408

Bullocks

I'd hang on to them aswell and find some way to pay the contractor. Maybe mad but could you sell an animal or two now while prices are up to cover the contractor bill and maybe buy them back around with a few extra to eat the bales in Dec /Jan .
If the winter gets tough cattle will get cheaper and bales will get dearer .

Sam Kade

Bigus wrote: »

Have a look at the long term weather forum here on boards , main man MT hints at 2009/10 winter.

You do know them long term weather forecasts are only crystal ball gazing usually way off, also 4-5 days ahead is reasonably accurate after that the accuracy drops the further out you go

CloughCasey1

8 outwintered dairy weanlings will eat a bale in 5 days. I would het FR or FRx as it would be tall ud want to make them over first winter anyway. You should be able to pick up eight feb/march for 400 each. 3200. In 5 mts they will eat 30 of those bales. Sell in summer for 800 all going well.

6480

You sound like an arm chair farmer and I have no pity for ya see them around here out to flecee a hard working farmer for poor quality feed

Bullocks

6480 wrote: »

You sound like an arm chair farmer and I have no pity for ya see them around here out to flecee a hard working farmer for poor quality feed

What a statement!

50HX

6480 wrote: »

You sound like an arm chair farmer and I have no pity for ya see them around here out to flecee a hard working farmer for poor quality feed

as the saying goes

" if you can't say anything constructive don't say anything at all"

greysides

[mod]6480, that comment is completely uncalled for. Please review your posting style before it becomes necessary to take action against you.

Do not post again in this thread unless it's an apology.[/mod]

Birdnuts

I'd hold on to those bales for now - I feel a "difficult" winter coming on and there'll be takers for them bales come early spring, especially in Western counties.

dodo mommy

galwayhillbilly wrote:

Option 2 If we have a mild spring I don't get to sell any bales and I will be hard pressed to pay the contractor or some other bill

You made the bales in August do u not have the contractor paid yet?

Reggie.

dodo mommy wrote: »

You made the bales in August do u not have the contractor paid yet?

Well I know contractors that rather be paid after the season to have some cash flow in the winter

Chemical Byrne

Well I don't know about anyone else, but if I was in OP's position I would pray for a winter like 2012/2013 and then gouge, gouge and gouge some more!

CloughCasey1

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

Well I don't know about anyone else, but if I was in OP's position I would pray for a winter like 2012/2013 and then gouge, gouge and gouge some more!

Be careful what ya wish for

Milked out

Reggie. wrote: »

Well I know contractors that rather be paid after the season to have some cash flow in the winter

One Contractor here comes Xmas week and another in jan

20silkcut

Milked out wrote: »

One Contractor here comes Xmas week and another in jan

That's nasty

Milked out

20silkcut wrote: »

That's nasty

Well the lad that calls in Dec always has and in fairness he is good to come when we are stuck with weather or whatever for silage plus with winter milk we have cash coming in and the money will have to be there to go out at some.stage anyway. Twud be worse if it was at different times every year. The guy in jan we get maize off and has suggested splitting payment between summer and jan makes no odds to him but like that he has always called in jan

Sunny Dayz

Hold onto the bales. You don't know what sort of winter and spring we will get. You will have people who will panic buy them in Jan/Feb as their supplies are running low.

whelan2

Reggie. wrote: »

Well I know contractors that rather be paid after the season to have some cash flow in the winter

one lad has all his repayments when sfp comes in october so gathers all the money then, also give him a few cheques during the year- which he doesnt cash until october anyway

Brown Podzol

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

Well I don't know about anyone else, but if I was in OP's position I would pray for a winter like 2012/2013 and then gouge, gouge and gouge some more!

Only a couple of those winters in your lifetime and won't happen this year. The late spring of '13 was only a problem because it came after the horrendous summer of '12.

galwayhillbilly

dodo mommy wrote: »

You made the bales in August do u not have the contractor paid yet?

contractor waits until sfp comes in, this is normal practice with most fellahs around here, also as I had 50 bales more than expected, the bill will be bigger than expected hence I was hoping to sell, to pay the contractor

galwayhillbilly

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

Well I don't know about anyone else, but if I was in OP's position I would pray for a winter like 2012/2013 and then gouge, gouge and gouge some more!

I have no intention of gouging anyone,I just want to avoid making a loss on silage that I don't need, better still if the excess bales paid for the whole harvest.

galwayhillbilly

CloughCasey1 wrote: »

8 outwintered dairy weanlings will eat a bale in 5 days. I would het FR or FRx as it would be tall ud want to make them over first winter anyway. You should be able to pick up eight feb/march for 400 each. 3200. In 5 mts they will eat 30 of those bales. Sell in summer for 800 all going well.

I was thinking of something like this but 3200 might be a stretch for me would mean a tight Christmas

Sam Kade

20silkcut wrote: »

That's nasty

Fierce nasty altogether he did work in June and he arrives 6 months later for payment. It's not as if the money wouldn't be set aside for him.

Nekarsulm

galwayhillbilly wrote: »

I have no intention of gouging anyone,I just want to avoid making a loss on silage that I don't need, better still if the excess bales paid for the whole harvest.

Most bales are sold at cost price, or even below it.

_Brian

OPs stuff was intended for hay and a big crop. I'd read from that that it's probably not ideal stuff for saving for silage (no offence OP).

Being more stemmey it would need extra wraps applied to help preserve well. If it just it the regular number of wraps it may well not keep that great not being ideal stuff in the first place.

Fed early it should be ok but next March/April it might not be value at any price.

Like lots of bought in fodder it would be a lottery and I'd rather feed ration than some unknown second rate feed. "Lucky Dip Bags" I've heard them called.

galwayhillbilly

Nekarsulm wrote: »

Most bales are sold at cost price, or even below it.

not what I hoped to hear will try to sell it as meadow if I am ever in that situation again

galwayhillbilly

_Brian wrote: »

OPs stuff was intended for hay and a big crop. I'd read from that that it's probably not ideal stuff for saving for silage (no offence OP).

Being more stemmey it would need extra wraps applied to help preserve well. If it just it the regular number of wraps it may well not keep that great not being ideal stuff in the first place.

Fed early it should be ok but next March/April it might not be value at any price.

Like lots of bought in fodder it would be a lottery and I'd rather feed ration than some unknown second rate feed. "Lucky Dip Bags" I've heard them called.

I hope they are not lucky dips it was well wilted for 2 days in relatively good weather and if rain hadn't threatened would have probably given it another 12 hours and it would have been dry enough for haylage. As it stands it is probably borderline silage/haylage wont really know which until I open the first bale or get it tested, I'd be fairly confident that it would keep ok, going by similar ones made last year in similar conditions, only last week a cow that had a calf weaned off her broke into the paddock where last years 2 remaining bales were left and she wasn't complaining about the quality ate plastic and all
I do see you point though and the potential buyers will be making the same point. Would it be worth my while getting it tested? and when should I do this?

20silkcut

Nekarsulm wrote: »

Most bales are sold at cost price, or even below it.

Most farm produce in general sold at cost price or below at the moment.

_Brian

I would definitely get it tested. At least your selling with confidence knowing what it's like.

Carrigogunnell

Definately get it tested u would be surprised at what it will come back at. I bale a certain field for an organic farmer every yr it's let grow from February to August gets slurry only I asked him to get it tested for the crack and it came back at 71 Dmd

Willfarman

Surplus everywhere or just the east?

Bullocks

Willfarman wrote: »

Surplus everywhere or just the east?

No one is talking of being short here in the west yet either with this nice spell of weather but it's early days yet . A nice dry autumn is letting us graze out everywhere well so far .

Good loser

galwayhillbilly wrote: »

I hope they are not lucky dips it was well wilted for 2 days in relatively good weather and if rain hadn't threatened would have probably given it another 12 hours and it would have been dry enough for haylage. As it stands it is probably borderline silage/haylage wont really know which until I open the first bale or get it tested, I'd be fairly confident that it would keep ok, going by similar ones made last year in similar conditions, only last week a cow that had a calf weaned off her broke into the paddock where last years 2 remaining bales were left and she wasn't complaining about the quality ate plastic and all
I do see you point though and the potential buyers will be making the same point. Would it be worth my while getting it tested? and when should I do this?

No. Don't test.

Ask around; contractors usually know of buyers. A large dairy/beef farmer might take some or all or know of someone that might buy.

Call in personally to a few who might be likely. Someone could take 5/10 and satisfy himself as to quality. I expect they would be fine.