how many bales acre

st1979

Just baled first cut yesterday cut was mowed Saturday. Earlier than I would normally go and normally pit it. Grass was Italian so would be too stemmy in a week. What would you expect. Bales are very well made by a McHale. I got 5/acre

TITANIUM.

st1979 wrote: »

Just baled first cut yesterday cut was mowed Saturday. Earlier than I would normally go and normally pit it. Grass was Italian so would be too stemmy in a week. What would you expect. Bales are very well made by a McHale. I got 5/acre

That seems very light to me. I'd be expecting at least 12 bales a acre for the first cut at a low ball estimate. It's probably very good quality tho.

Sam Kade

TITANIUM. wrote: »

That seems very light to me. I'd be expecting at least 12 bales a acre for the first cut at a low ball estimate. It's probably very good quality tho.

Italian rygrass is always light as it's fairly open at the base.

TITANIUM.

Sam Kade wrote: »

Italian rygrass is always light as it's fairly open at the base.

Absolutely, but 5 bales to the acre on the first cut!

st1979

TITANIUM. wrote:

Absolutely, but 5 bales to the acre on the first cut!

Well I have got 12 bales before but wouldn't expect it on 14th may. 14th June no problem

Milked out

U could get another 5 bales by mid June and you have same number of bales except excellent quality instead of poor one cut high volume stuff

jaymla627

TITANIUM. wrote: »

Absolutely, but 5 bales to the acre on the first cut!

Averaged just under 5 here on 40 acres of 1st cut yesterday, all will be fed out in the spring as milkers silage, and will probably be back in grazing these fields in 3 weeks time having top quality silage for spring like the above and after grass coming back into the rotation on June are both worth ten times over what leaving the fields to bulk so I get a "decent" first cut...
Have 30 acres rented beside us for the bulky first cut as dry cow feed wouldn't dream of taking heavy cuts of owned ground as your just mining it of p and k

simx

Did two heavy paddocks yesterday and got 4 bales/ac, 5 bales is fairly low for first cut but like said is prob high quality

Testacalda

One big factor is how well the bales are packed. It can have a huge difference on the actual number of bales per acre. We normally run our Mc Hales at 8 (out of 10) on the presure scale for chopped silage, but I know some contractors that have it much lower. Makes a big difference with the bale per acre ratio

A bale with the pressure set a 6 will look more or less the same asone at 8. The Mc Hale can make a tidy bale even if it isnt packed as tight as possible

mahoney_j

Baked Italian and red yesterday ,cut Friday Tedded sat and Sunday .4.8 bales per acre .really good quality .be cutting it again within4/5 weeks .this was also z grazed mid March .u have to be on the ball with Italian as it goes from wuality to muck in less than a week .

st1979

mahoney_j wrote:

Baked Italian and red yesterday ,cut Friday Tedded sat and Sunday .4.8 bales per acre .really good quality .be cutting it again within4/5 weeks .this was also z grazed mid March .u have to be on the ball with Italian as it goes from wuality to muck in less than a week .

This is the sort of answer I was looking for. My cut then was about right for the date and quality. I know it was light but it was never going to be heavy with the early cutting date and with the cold spring we had. Another week would of given me a lot more grass but quality would be gone.

Markcheese

mahoney_j wrote:

Baked Italian and red yesterday ,cut Friday Tedded sat and Sunday .4.8 bales per acre .really good quality .be cutting it again within4/5 weeks .this was also z grazed mid March .u have to be on the ball with Italian as it goes from wuality to muck in less than a week .

Red clover ?? Does the leaf not get shattered by tedding ?? Do most people tedd these days ??
At least if you're mowing yourself theres not a huge penalty price wise for taking several light cuts...

mahoney_j

st1979 wrote: »

This is the sort of answer I was looking for. My cut then was about right for the date and quality. I know it was light but it was never going to be heavy with the early cutting date and with the cold spring we had. Another week would of given me a lot more grass but quality would be gone.

Italian is a very open crop and will tend to grow tall and go stemmy very quick .i got caught with one cut last year cutting delayed by 6 days and all it was is average dry cow feed .the plan for mine is z graze mid March .2500 gallons slurry and 2 bags 18'612 with s in early April .aim to cut anytime from May bank holiday on and then every 4/5 weeks .2500 gallons watery slurry and 3/4 bag of sulfa can per cut after that .in 5 cuts last year go 22 bales per acre throughout summer

leg wax

7 to the acre yesterday , cut on sat .3 k of slurry out today hope to cut in 6 weeks again.

White Clover

Markcheese wrote: »

Red clover ?? Does the leaf not get shattered by tedding ?? Do most people tedd these days ??
At least if you're mowing yourself theres not a huge penalty price wise for taking several light cuts...

Do all the mowing myself, aim for no more than 5 bales per acre. Usually have 10 to 20 acres to mow every week to 10 days from mid may to 10th August.

Markcheese

White Clover wrote:

Do all the mowing myself, aim for no more than 5 bales per acre. Usually have 10 to 20 acres to mow every week to 10 days from mid may to 10th August.

Always thought that was the smartest way of doing baled silage... especially clover..

Water John

Always thought that would be a very good system, White Clover.
Has a high labour input throughout the summer is the only downside.

alps

mahoney_j wrote: »

Italian is a very open crop and will tend to grow tall and go stemmy very quick .i got caught with one cut last year cutting delayed by 6 days and all it was is average dry cow feed .the plan for mine is z graze mid March .2500 gallons slurry and 2 bags 18'612 with s in early April .aim to cut anytime from May bank holiday on and then every 4/5 weeks .2500 gallons watery slurry and 3/4 bag of sulfa can per cut after that .in 5 cuts last year go 22 bales per acre throughout summer

MJ, could you give a guess at the dm weight of the bales?
Seems like you are pulling a nice yield out if this bit of ground, not far off what you could achieve by grazing.