Moving silage

Green farmer

Bit tight on silage and might have to try and source a trailer of round bales. Thing is, does moving silage ie loading / unloading etc effect quality ? Do tines piercing wrap or soft hands squeezing bales effect it, if I don't use it until a month afterwards etc ?

lakill Farm

Green farmer wrote: »

Bit tight on silage and might have to try and source a trailer of round bales. Thing is, does moving silage ie loading / unloading etc effect quality ? Do tines piercing wrap or soft hands squeezing bales effect it, if I don't use it until a month afterwards etc ?

use a set of soft hands . you might damage one or 2 but feed them first and you will have no loss

Reggie.

lakill Farm wrote: »

use a set of soft hands . you might damage one or 2 but feed them first and you will have no loss

+1 and try to not oversqueeze the bales

Green farmer

Going to source them, and will pay a seller an extra few quid to deliver them, as I don't have a trailer, so don't know if they'll have soft hands or from loader with tines. If the bales are patched again where tunes puncture bales after loading / offloading, would this effect quality ? Or would they be ok .

_Brian

Particularly in this mild weather puncturing bales will spoil quickly enough, good silage would be average very quickly and money wasted...

kowtow

Reggie. wrote:

+1 and try to not oversqueeze the bales

Stop before the valve kicks in?

Reggie.

kowtow wrote: »

Stop before the valve kicks in?

You'll know as you squeeze them. Enough just to hold them

raypallas

Green farmer wrote:

Bit tight on silage and might have to try and source a trailer of round bales. Thing is, does moving silage ie loading / unloading etc effect quality ? Do tines piercing wrap or soft hands squeezing bales effect it, if I don't use it until a month afterwards etc ?

Could you have them delivered in a small batch. That way they'll be used before they are spoiled.

9935452

raypallas wrote: »

Could you have them delivered in a small batch. That way they'll be used before they are spoiled.

Agree
Op how many bales a week do you expect to use and how many are you buying.
Also how far is the seller from you?

Green farmer

9935452 wrote: »

Agree
Op how many bales a week do you expect to use and how many are you buying.
Also how far is the seller from you?

Haven't sourced a supplier yet, but just want to have all the facts before I start asking lads. Hoping to find someone within a reasonable distance that will drop a tractor and trailer load. 1 use a bale a day and have enough silage to take me to the end of February. So looking to source around 30 bales.

Keepgrowing

Green farmer wrote: »

Haven't sourced a supplier yet, but just want to have all the facts before I start asking lads. Hoping to find someone within a reasonable distance that will drop a tractor and trailer load. 1 use a bale a day and have enough silage to take me to the end of February. So looking to source around 30 bales.

Why don't you buy now and use now?

Alternative would be to buy my hay as it's going to be in the way very soon

Green farmer

Keepgrowing wrote: »

Why don't you buy now and use now?

Alternative would be to buy my hay as it's going to be in the way very soon

That's the plan alright, will be used as soon as it hits the ground, but will still take a month to use it all. Was thinking about hay alright, would be easier to transport, but what's swaying me is I righty or wrongly feel theres better feeding in silage. Still I suppose all depends on how near I source some stuff .

davidk1394

Green farmer wrote: »

That's the plan alright, will be used as soon as it hits the ground, but will still take a month to use it all. Was thinking about hay alright, would be easier to transport, but what's swaying me is I righty or wrongly feel theres better feeding in silage. Still I suppose all depends on how near I source some stuff .

Top quality hay is the same as poor quality silage. Cattle wouldn't look at it if you give it too them. When it comes to moving them it depends how sagged they are in terms of loading them. I find the soft hands isn't as good for loading sagged bales compaired to the conventional one

Who2

Is there no lad around with a bale trailer that will take 6-10 bales at a time? They would be used straight away and no hassle. Why the need for 30 bales on the one load? I can guarantee you unless your in a very heavy area there is layers of bales for sale close by.

Green farmer

Who2 wrote: »

Is there no lad around with a bale trailer that will take 6-10 bales at a time? They would be used straight away and no hassle. Why the need for 30 bales on the one load? I can guarantee you unless your in a very heavy area there is layers of bales for sale close by.

Shir I'll see what pans out. Plenty of stuff available ok. I'm surrounded by dairy lads. Just need to find stuff within a few mile radius, and see how a seller is set up to deliver. Contractor can do it for me as well, but they'd sent tractor/ trailer and teleporter and I couldn't ask them to do it for any less then a full load.

9935452

Green farmer wrote: »

Shir I'll see what pans out. Plenty of stuff available ok. I'm surrounded by dairy lads. Just need to find stuff within a few mile radius, and see how a seller is set up to deliver. Contractor can do it for me as well, but they'd sent tractor/ trailer and teleporter and I couldn't ask them to do it for any less then a full load.

Where abouts in the country are you?

I dont think a full load of silage would be 30 bales either.
Normally with silage , 2 rows on the bottom and one on top to cap the load.
With bales that are stacked and out of shape it can be difficult to put a big load up safely
30ft bale trailer means 7 x2 on the bottom and 6/8 on top, so about 20 in total.
With the new requirements of having to tie down loads, its nearly as fast to take half loads.

Green farmer

9935452 wrote: »

Where abouts in the country are you?

I dont think a full load of silage would be 30 bales either.

30ft bale trailer means 7 x2 on the bottom and 6/8 on top, so about 20 in total.
With the new requirements of having to tie down loads, its nearly as fast to take half loads.

Ah fair enough, whatever's the longest length the trailers are manufactured, is what the local contractor has here. It's like something off the back of an artic lorry, but I honestly don't remember how many bales fit along it. I was just Lettin lads know the date I'm due to run out of silage to try and judge the quantity needed to get me to grass, that's where the 30 bales came from. I'm in limerick, so no shortage of fodder around here, just see if I can get someone within a few miles, for easy transport.

casualguy

If there's plenty of local farmers with bales..could borrow a grab off a local contractor & collect 1 or 2 at a time yourself..the contractor probably wouldnt be using them at this time of the year...just in case u dont need the 30.

Green farmer

Did some ringing around. Found several lads, but some were abit to far away. Going to go with a jeep and trailer to get a bale or two to try out, and if that works out will see about a bigger load. Thanks for the advice !!!