Options for cutting & baling silage in current conditions

curioush

Just wondering people's views on mowing silage in the current conditions. In the Cork area here. The bales will be used within 6-7 months.
is it okay to cut if the grass is dry and to then bale straight away in your opinon? Or leave it down for a day and risk rain?
We cut and baled a hour later last year in similar conditions and the bales were in very good condition at winter time.
Any links to online documents to back up views would be great.

_Brian

If it's dry and ground is fit then I'd now and bale straight.
Leaving it down to get wet won't improve the silage.

lough135

When I was doing the part time green cert on-line, there was a paragraph in one of the books on preserving silage and it said that wet silage didn't affect quality. Ideally it would be best cut and baled dry but it isn't always possible, years ago most silage was direct cut and straight into the pit and there is still a few doing it that way.

cute geoge

The biggest problem is you will have once and half time more bales at least so a costly carry on .Any sp contractor will gladly pit it for no extra cost,in fact a local s.p. silage contractor used have a cheaper rate a wet day

Keepgrowing

cute geoge wrote: »

The biggest problem is you will have once and half time more bales at least so a costly carry on .Any sp contractor will gladly pit it for no extra cost,in fact a local s.p. silage contractor used have a cheaper rate a wet day

Lol, was that to encourage farmers to work on wet days?

cute geoge

It stands to reason a contractor can cut at reduced rate on a wet day instead of mad panic in fine days .He might encounter problems in payment when almost everyday is raining