Chop bales of silage or not

Matty6270

I have a claas 46 non chopper Baler. I am ready to cut two reseeded fields. But d grass is around 2-3 foot long,and heavy. Will I bale it myself of pay a contractor to chop it. I'm afraid it might be to long in d bale without chopping it. Then again I will have to part with money for some1 else to do it. There's around 8 acres

trabpc

Fed 40 unchopped silage bales this winter. Absolutely fine. Long stringy so they dragged a bit under thier feet. Not an issue in most sheds but could be issue on slats. My barriers are not divided into individual places so that may have made or easier for cows to pull it in.
Easy enough to fork if needed too. Not as easy as chopped but managed fine. Unchopped bales perfect for round feeder if u still have one.

Matty6270

Thanks for the reply. I was just worried because it is 3 foot in places and thought it might to to long

9935452

you will be grand quality wise but as the other poster says it can cause problems if fed in slats.
The only thing i would be saying is if you do get a contactor in with the likes of a fusion he will have an aweful lot less bales than you will have so you might save the difference in plastic alone even if you are wrapping yourself.
I was baling with a jd578 on day and had a break down . I had 3/4 of the field baled and had 7 bales. We got a lad with a class 46 to finish the field and he found another 7 bales . There was a big difference in what was in the bales.

IH784man

9935452 wrote: »

you will be grand quality wise but as the other poster says it can cause problems if fed in slats.
The only thing i would be saying is if you do get a contactor in with the likes of a fusion he will have an aweful lot less bales than you will have so you might save the difference in plastic alone even if you are wrapping yourself.
I was baling with a jd578 on day and had a break down . I had 3/4 of the field baled and had 7 bales. We got a lad with a class 46 to finish the field and he found another 7 bales . There was a big difference in what was in the bales.

Does your 578 chop dry grass?

davidk1394

Matty6270 wrote: »

I have a claas 46 non chopper Baler. I am ready to cut two reseeded fields. But d grass is around 2-3 foot long,and heavy. Will I bale it myself of pay a contractor to chop it. I'm afraid it might be to long in d bale without chopping it. Then again I will have to part with money for some1 else to do it. There's around 8 acres

We're feeding unchopped bales and chopped bales. They came out absolutely fine. However if your feeding it on slats it might get caught in the slats and be a bit harder to agitate

Kovu

We feed chopped bales but it causes a few rows between me & dad. Dad likes them double chopped (not sure if that's the correct term?) so the strands are down to maybe a few inches long at most. I prefer them to be chopped with a few blades removed so the strands are half a foot to a foot long.
Each of us like to feed the shed cattle differently- I like to have the bale on its end and pull/throw the silage to cattle at the barrier, dad likes to leave the bale on its end at the barrier and let the cattle self feed.
But we both wouldn't let it be unchopped as the cattle make a mess on the slats, especially with the mats as the openings are a bit smaller so get clogged up easily. Plus we had a battle one year with a huge lump of silage stuck in the middle of the tank and couldn't be reached from either side where we agitate.

So I dunno, I guess it depends on how you feed! I wouldn't feed the chopped stuff outdoors as it causes too much waste. The only way we managed it was to leave the bale on its side and cut the plastic off both ends but leave it on the round so the cows had to dig in for a bite.

As your is reseeded & clean sort of grass (no long tráneens or old rough bits) I'd say you could chance it without chopping, it's going to be tasty stuff and the cattle shouldn't be fighting & pucking each other at the barrier to get the best bits.

FeelTheBern

Can the contractor vary how much the baler chops it or does a particular baler just produce the same type of bales always?

We had some bales last year that didn't seem to be chopped at all - found it a nightmare to fork it out and cows pulled loads into slats. Was that something not working properly on baler?

Kovu

FeelTheBern wrote: »

Can the contractor vary how much the baler chops it or does a particular baler just produce the same type of bales always?

We had some bales last year that didn't seem to be chopped at all - found it a nightmare to fork it out and cows pulled loads into slats. Was that something not working properly on baler?

From the brief explanation I got a couple of years ago, the blades can be moved into or out of position so yes they can change it. Our contractor usually has the blades near the edges put down so that the ends are less chopped and the bales don't fall apart where the netting ends. We also pay more per bale for chopping so if you paid for it and don't think yours were chopped well enough I'd be complaining.
I'm sure someone else can give a more detailed version of it though!

IH784man

FeelTheBern wrote: »

Can the contractor vary how much the baler chops it or does a particular baler just produce the same type of bales always?

We had some bales last year that didn't seem to be chopped at all - found it a nightmare to fork it out and cows pulled loads into slats. Was that something not working properly on baler?

Depends on the baler,newer technology will work better than older gear most of the time eg the chopper would be more advanced in a new baler compared to an older baler

tanko

FeelTheBern wrote: »

Can the contractor vary how much the baler chops it or does a particular baler just produce the same type of bales always?

We had some bales last year that didn't seem to be chopped at all - found it a nightmare to fork it out and cows pulled loads into slats. Was that something not working properly on baler?

Yeah, there was something not working properly on the baler alrite - the driver!!!!!!!

FeelTheBern

tanko wrote: »

Yeah, there was something not working properly on the baler alrite - the driver!!!!!!!

Sorry - no idea about the world of balers! Do you mean that he had baler set up not to chop fully to move faster or driving too fast or what?

tanko

You said some of the bales weren't chopped, I assume the rest were chopped ok. It sounds like driver error to me.
Last year my contractor had two balers in my field, it turned out that one baler was chopping the bales and the other wasn't, one of them wasn't chopping the bales at the previous farm and ''forgot'' to put the knives up in the baler when he got to me even though he was told all bales were to be chopped.
Unchopped bales are a pain for feeding.

9935452

IH784man wrote: »

Does your 578 chop dry grass?

Do you own one?
We find even with the wagons, when the grass gets very dry they tend not to chop as well even with very sharp knives.
The 578 goes under a lot of pressure trying to chop dry grass.
We had an older 02 that never had a problem taking in dry grass though

IH784man

9935452 wrote: »

Do you own one?
We find even with the wagons, when the grass gets very dry they tend not to chop as well even with very sharp knives.
The 578 goes under a lot of pressure trying to chop dry grass.
We had an older 02 that never had a problem taking in dry grass though

We had a 05 one,wouldn't chop anything dry without knocking,good baler other wise never no big problems unlike our other balers we had like a claas,got a new mchale f5500 baler last year and will chops wet or dry grass