pit V bales....

blonde10

Evening,in your opinion which makes the best silage,also what is the best value when it comes to taking up say 15/20 acre at once,has any one changed back to pit after bales,or bales after pit...I've noticed a few extra bales coming in from the same field in the last few years,is it possible to change the size of the bale coming from the baler even though it's a fixed chamber baler.....???.... so I'm just wondering what are people's views....

Bass Reeves

More people change from pit to bales than visa versa. IMO bales are better silage but the key to good silage is cutting date. At 15-20 acres the cost of bales versus pit is negligible and if you get a wilt bales are more than likely cheaper. Saw crops cut the last week in May which got a serious wilt comming in at 6-8 bales/ acre. So e lads that cut and bale are charging 7.50-8 for baling and 2/ bales to cut. So all in cost Inc plastic ( using 6 layers) of 14ish/ bale or 85-110/ acre plus drawing costs. Most operators around me are making serious bales.

When you are down around 20 acres you have little choice with pit contractors. Some will not bother wilting it or pick it up straight after rain. The other thing about bales is you can stagger your closing dates and take second costs. You do not have to opt for big bulky poor quality crops. With a pit you are limited when you can open the pit you must have enough demand to feed across the face of the pit in a week or silage will deteriorate compared to bales where you are opening bales individually.

The main disadvantage of bales is having to draw them a distance either after making or at feeding time. Another plus is you can feed bales with a 70 HP 2wd tractor and a rear spike. You would not need a loaded and neither do you need a pit a gravel or stone area will do to store. Plastic is a bit of a nucience but there no climbing up on a pit to roll back 2-3 layers of plastic or throwing down tyres.

Timmaay

Summed up well enough by bass there, two big downsides of bales in my view are if you end up with a wet harvest you'll have wayyyy more bales (silage is wetter so less grass and more water in each bale), effluent will flow outa these bales, and they can end up like pancakes, and you obviously gotta be careful about where the effluent goes! The 2nd problem with bales are if you are doing pit and bales you end up handling the bales with the sheargrab (unless you want to swap it off for the balespike every day), you need a big tractor with good back end weight to handle a sheargrab and a heavy silage bale hanging off the front of it. But definitely scaling back on pit silage here, decommissioning an old silage pit here next year and won't be replacing it, instead it will be more staggered cuts of bales, will probably end up with half bales and half pit. Upgraded the loader tractor here to a bigger 115hp tractor over the winter which definitely makes lighter work of bales, even with the sheargrab.

Mooooo

I'd go pit all the way more for convenience than anything, have gotten pit silage in at 80 dmd in the past. My feeding passage at 11 feet is too narrow for comfortable use of bales, fine if only buffering cows but if all stock are on can't drive past them too easy. I cut the plastic on the silage pit gave up rolling back covers a few years ago. A smaller no of bales is fine but o wouldn't like to face in to making 1.5 to 2k bales every year. Other thing is stuff left in a pit will last longer have bales here I'll have to dump this year,

farawaygrass

Mooooo wrote: »

I'd go pit all the way more for convenience than anything, have gotten pit silage in at 80 dmd in the past. My feeding passage at 11 feet is too narrow for comfortable use of bales, fine if only buffering cows but if all stock are on can't drive past them too easy. I cut the plastic on the silage pit gave up rolling back covers a few years ago. A smaller no of bales is fine but o wouldn't like to face in to making 1.5 to 2k bales every year. Other thing is stuff left in a pit will last longer have bales here I'll have to dump this year,

I agree with everything bass said. There wouldn't be many making 1.5 to 2k bales though, not around here though. The big advantage of bales is cutting a field here and there, no big pressure to lock alot together.

Mooooo

farawaygrass wrote: »

I agree with everything bass said. There wouldn't be many making 1.5 to 2k bales though, not around here though. The big advantage of bales is cutting a field here and there, no big pressure to lock alot together.

That wouldn't be all together, it would be split between two cuts of silage and strong paddocks. As in what would likely be cut in the year,

The part time boy

When I was fill time dairy I switched to all bails about 8 year ago. We did a lot of the work ourselves with neiobours between us . We were making about 2200 bails a year

Advantages

Lot less waste. ( i nearly say no waste ) More palatable for the cows to eat. Control of when you want to cut . Able to close off field when u want (don't have to close off all first cut in one go) . No big bill to contractor

Disvantage

Time ! We could have spend a few weeks making sillage . Poor cows get nelagted during them few weeks. Between cutting and feeding we handle every bail 4 times . Also auto scrapers don't like bails as the cows can pull in sillage . I have a scraper cleaning the feeding passage .

I only have about 40 cattle now so still use bails but to be honest if I was ever to get back to cows or large number of dry cattle I think I go back to pit .

farisfat

Anyone wrap big squares less bales to handle but big gear needed to handle them.

Postdriver

farisfat wrote:

Anyone wrap big squares less bales to handle but big gear needed to handle them.

Yes done a lot of them but I was selling them, 6x4x3 would weigh abt 250 kgs heavier than a fusion bale. 12 bales to a roll of plastic seems scary but per ton of grass off the field there's not that much difference between round or square bales plastic wise, ud easily bring 3 acres of grass in 1 load (18-20bales) and they take up way less room in the yard and never lose there shape.
Quality is top class with them too as their bet together and stack so tight. After saying all that I'm feeding my own stock this winter and I filled a pit....
Tbh I'm sick to the teeth of all bales but maybe I handled too many of em😥.
All silage is dear no matter what way u make it and store it but the contractor with the sph putting it in the pit was like a breath of fresh air this year for me anyway....

K.G.

How things work for me
Bales- pay a fella ten euro(includ plastic)to pick grass up, wrap it and drop it right back down where he got it and i have to shift it or pay maybe three men to bring them home.wagon-one man gathers it up brings it home and lands on top of the pit for me. During winter hop up on loader and grab away whereas bales-up down up down up down up down.......... and big heap of wrap and net after.

twin_beacon

we make on average 350 bales a year, no pit.
We don't have a slab so pit isn't really an option for us.
My dad has had 2 hip replacements since 2015. I work in Dublin, so he does pretty much all the feeding in the winter. We stack the bales between us in the summmer. We got a bridgeway bale feeder at the start of last winter, we had a few small teething issues that were sorted out. My dad wouldn't be without it now, removes most of the labour with the fork.

Green&Red

Mooooo wrote: »

I'd go pit all the way more for convenience than anything, have gotten pit silage in at 80 dmd in the past. My feeding passage at 11 feet is too narrow for comfortable use of bales, fine if only buffering cows but if all stock are on can't drive past them too easy. I cut the plastic on the silage pit gave up rolling back covers a few years ago. A smaller no of bales is fine but o wouldn't like to face in to making 1.5 to 2k bales every year. Other thing is stuff left in a pit will last longer have bales here I'll have to dump this year,

What Mooo said, I did our second cut last year in bales and they broke my heart. Up and down out of the tractor, plastic and netting everywhere, cows pulling out silage into the yard, scrapers not able on push it away. Now I'm worrying if they'll keep til September.

Cleared out my silage pit two years ago, 8 yo silage at the back, the finest of stuff. Someone mentioned needing to take the front of the pit within a week, I wouldn't find that, two weeks if not more.
My set up has cows feeding from both sides and there's some to be thrown out to them everyday, a killer with the bales.
And the cost, there's no comparison, especially if it's anyways wet

Bass Reeves

Green&Red wrote: »

What Mooo said, I did our second cut last year in bales and they broke my heart. Up and down out of the tractor, plastic and netting everywhere, cows pulling out silage into the yard, scrapers not able on push it away. Now I'm worrying if they'll keep til September.

Cleared out my silage pit two years ago, 8 yo silage at the back, the finest of stuff. Someone mentioned needing to take the front of the pit within a week, I wouldn't find that, two weeks if not more.
My set up has cows feeding from both sides and there's some to be thrown out to them everyday, a killer with the bales.
And the cost, there's no comparison, especially if it's anyways wet

If you are taking two weeks or more to go accross a pit face the silage is deterioating even though you may not be aware of it. Do bales here and it is not much of a chore feeding them. You need to get up and down off a tractor once and once only per bale. If silage is well wilted a half bale will feed 15 stores for day or 20-25 weanlings. Next day you only need to push in the half bale. Generally a pen of store gets two bales in front of the pen anf will get 3-4 days with only pushing in of silage. Weanling pen a bale and pus it in. There is no need for plastic and net to be all over the place. All net goes into ton bulk bag, all plastic goes into a cormer with a half an old round feeder in front of it.

No matter what system you use it is all about organisation. Yes if you are making the equivlent of over 500 bales then the economics swing in the pits favour sub 200 bales it is in the bales favour IMO. In between it is your preference. However I see some dairy farmers that are handling 1000 bales have moved from pit to all bales. The reason most give is the quality of the product.

For a smaller operator there is contest. Bales can be fed with a 2WD tractor way faster than any 4wd and loader around a yard. If silage grppund is around yard all bales need only be handled twice. Contractor wraps and drops, aftwer than you can bring in and stack in one go and feed in one go. Used a CX 80 2wd to feed bales that were stacked 3 high last year. Just tugged out bottom bale and rest spilled out or were easy to extract. Did not cut the face of bottom bale carried it to front of shed and next time I was down to take off wrap cut a ring on face of bale and fed it then

moneyheer

All bales here since 2010 wouldn't go back to pit silage if I was paid . The reason being that I've more control of how much to cut at a given & how long too wilt for. I make 1300 bales a year. Have keltech bale shear is no getting up and down when feeding the bales☺. But then everyone to their own.

cute geoge

Bales are a winner BUT YOU NEED TO WILT THEM .I have often got caught with the weather and there would be double the number of bales per acre and I would not see the contractor loosing much sleep over them being wet that is for sure!!!

Grueller

Under 9 bales per acre bales win. Over that they are too dear imo.
I make a pit for first cut and take 300-400ish bales off paddocks here and there as I go then.
I love to see the last bale gone. I hate handling and feeding them. The pit istop bang in the centre of the feed passages (passage walls are pit side walls), 20 to 30 minutes on the shear grab and both passages full. That is a 90hp tractor, 4' grab and it has been doing it for 10+ years without any harm to the tractor.
As someone said earlier, I cut off the cover, no rolling back. I am part time and a few euro for an extra cover once a year is worth the time and hardship saving on dark evenings after being at work all day.
I appreciate bales suit a lot of people but thats my experience.

briangriffin

how long would you wilt bales on average say with a muggy day like today very little breeze or sushine?

wiggy123

when was it cut, it a heavy crop?? suppose most folk wilt it for is 24hours--it been tossed before baling?

GrasstoMilk

Gone from making 1500 bales here to 600. Much essier life and didn't see any difference in animal performance the winter gone.
Like was said here previously we spent days most of the week throughout the summer at silage and then everything else was neglected.
Don't see ourselves going back to full bales but will still have a good few.

tractorporn

Having just spent the weekend with the brother in law drawing the guts of 300 bales, in beside the yard yesterday for wrapping and then today onto the slab, all I can say is thanks be ta jaysus we make a pit at home. How does anyone put up with that level of hardship? At least with a pit the contractor does all the drawing.

Bass Reeves

tractorporn wrote: »

Having just spent the weekend with the brother in law drawing the guts of 300 bales, in beside the yard yesterday for wrapping and then today onto the slab, all I can say is thanks be ta jaysus we make a pit at home. How does anyone put up with that level of hardship? At least with a pit the contractor does all the drawing.

I do not know what is the facination of wrapping in the yard as it is extar handling of bales. Always bale and wrap in field. Draw and stack with double bale handler and loader. As silafe is cut in stages most in one go is 100ish bales. This year with good wilt number of bales is back 20% to around 8/acre

Grueller

Bass Reeves wrote: »

I do not know what is the facination of wrapping in the yard as it is extar handling of bales. Always bale and wrap in field. Draw and stack with double bale handler and loader. As silafe is cut in stages most in one go is 100ish bales. This year with good wilt number of bales is back 20% to around 8/acre

On longer draws it is handier to wrap in the yard and not have damaged bales. I have a draw of 8 miles facing me this week for about 60 bales off paddocks that got away.

moneyheer

Wrap all bales in field here since 2012 wouldn't have it any other way. Before that used to draw back to yard and wrap. That was some pain try to organise people to draw with you.Have two draws of 5 miles and up unti last year I had a draw of approximately 20 mile no damage done to bales.

st1979

Get contractor with a tanco front mounted wrapper on a loading shovel. Brilliant job for wrapping in yard. Seriously quicker moving un wrapped bales then loading shovel wraps and stacks.
I have a 3mile draw each way. And have done self propelled, wagon and bales and they all take man power. You can throw loads of guys at it and get done in a few hours or spend days on your own.
Contractor I have now draws them and I help with my tractor and trailer. Can have up to 4 trailers and 2 tractors drawing. So much faster loading un wrapped.

whelan2

:rolleyes:http://j.mp/2sIS9hh

The part time boy

whelan2 wrote: »

:rolleyes:http://j.mp/2sIS9hh

Ag land must be searching these forums looking for stories now !

We better be carefully of what we say lol

Reggie.

whelan2 wrote: »

:rolleyes:http://j.mp/2sIS9hh

There is a spy amount is somewhere

pedigree 6

Reggie. wrote: »

There is a spy amount is somewhere

Did you hear Wexford farmers are now deploying squadrons of Buzzards in a bid to combat crow attacks on freshly wrapped silage bales in the field.

You heard it here first...

J.O. Farmer

pedigree 6 wrote: »

Did you hear Wexford farmers are now deploying squadrons of Buzzards in a bid to combat crow attacks on freshly wrapped silage bales in the field.

You heard it here first...

Fascinating story.
Is there a particular breed of buzzard they are using like the lesser spotted grey faced buzzard.

pedigree 6

J.O. Farmer wrote: »

Fascinating story.
Is there a particular breed of buzzard they are using like the lesser spotted grey faced buzzard.

The fearless Bare Faced Buzzard.

Dangerous yokes!

divillybit

twin_beacon wrote: »

we make on average 350 bales a year, no pit.
We don't have a slab so pit isn't really an option for us.
My dad has had 2 hip replacements since 2015. I work in Dublin, so he does pretty much all the feeding in the winter. We stack the bales between us in the summmer. We got a bridgeway bale feeder at the start of last winter, we had a few small teething issues that were sorted out. My dad wouldn't be without it now, removes most of the labour with the fork.

Just curious about what issues you had with the Bridgeway bale feeder twin_beacon (or anyone else that has a similiar type bale feeder)? Did you price any of the other bale feeders from Hustler or Blaney?
Thanks

Never wrestle with pigs

st1979 wrote: »

Get contractor with a tanco front mounted wrapper on a loading shovel. Brilliant job for wrapping in yard. Seriously quicker moving un wrapped bales then loading shovel wraps and stacks.

Would a good 4wd tractor and loader handle that or would it be to heavy?

Biscuitus

pedigree 6 wrote: »

Did you hear Wexford farmers are now deploying squadrons of Buzzards in a bid to combat crow attacks on freshly wrapped silage bales in the field.

You heard it here first...

My farm is swarming with buzzards but it still didn't deter the crows and other birds from the silage fields this week.

pedigree 6

Biscuitus wrote: »

My farm is swarming with buzzards but it still didn't deter the crows and other birds from the silage fields this week.

I wouldn't have believed a buzzard could kill a crow till we seen one fly up off the ground and leave a dead crow behind as we approached with the tractor.
My father was with me in the passenger seat. But we put that crow hanging out of a stick stuck in the middle of the field and with the dead crow and humans walking on the ground sticking up this dead crow the crows and gulls moved on somewhere else and never returned that day.

The very same the next day. Another silage field full of crows and gulls. Taking no notice of a car and tractors.
Then humans on the ground putting up the same dead crow hanging from the stick in the middle of the field and they all moved on.
(Bar one young crow that looked to be dying from starvation).

Keepgrowing

Never wrestle with pigs wrote: »

Would a good 4wd tractor and loader handle that or would it be to heavy?

Much too heavy, unless you had a very large tractor

J.O. Farmer

pedigree 6 wrote: »

I wouldn't have believed a buzzard could kill a crow till we seen one fly up off the ground and leave a dead crow behind as we approached with the tractor.
My father was with me in the passenger seat. But we put that crow hanging out of a stick stuck in the middle of the field and with the dead crow and humans walking on the ground sticking up this dead crow the crows and gulls moved on somewhere else and never returned that day.

The very same the next day. Another silage field full of crows and gulls. Taking no notice of a car and tractors.
Then humans on the ground putting up the same dead crow hanging from the stick in the middle of the field and they all moved on.
(Bar one young crow that looked to be dying from starvation).

So wexford farmers are engaging in ancient ritual in a bid to ward off crows

pedigree 6

J.O. Farmer wrote: »

So wexford farmers are engaging in ancient ritual in a bid to ward off crows

Whatever works.:)

twin_beacon

divillybit wrote: »

Just curious about what issues you had with the Bridgeway bale feeder twin_beacon (or anyone else that has a similiar type bale feeder)? Did you price any of the other bale feeders from Hustler or Blaney?
Thanks

we went with bridgeway, as we are only around 40 mins from where they are made, incase anything went wrong with it. It did give some bother, the connection between the two components wasn't ideal, and would disconnect if the bale was very heavy or out of shape. They fitted a different type of connection, and its been fine since then. They are great machines if your shed is long enough, and the passage is wide enough.

Byrnie55483

I switched over to pit from bales last year (bucking the trend I'd say.) There's work in covering the pit but it's over in 1/2 - 1 day. Drawing in and stacking bales is tedious too and you have to be careful not to tear them. Obvious advantage of bales is that you don't have to close up all your meadows at once. In terms of wastage, a lot of our bales used go mouldy towards end of winter / start of spring. The pit had a sliver of wastage along the top of the walls but was fine everywhere else. Much more annoying having to fork out mouldy bits from the bales and leave it aside. Also, cattle used to pull in much more of the bales into the pens than the chopped silage; thus cleaner pens after pit. Effluent was no big problem from either. In feeding terms easier to leave in blocks of silage in front of cattle than backing in bales, more manual handling and messing with net and plastic with the latter. Pit cover has to be rolled back usually one a week or so, half an hour of a task. Because I work off-farm the quicker I can get the job done the better, thus pit is superior. I had to invest in a little loader and grab for the pit but the loader also does other jobs around the yard. Pit usually works out cheaper, especially when you think about having to dispose of the bale wrapping properly. Chopped pit silage may not suit suckler farmers, I know of a man who changed from precision-chop to wagon-chop and then went to all bales altogether for this reason.

In summary, I found the pit works out marginally better in terms of cost, manual handling, quality, speed of feeding etc. I'm not sorry I went back to the pit but it may not suit everyone.

divillybit

twin_beacon wrote: »

we went with bridgeway, as we are only around 40 mins from where they are made, incase anything went wrong with it. It did give some bother, the connection between the two components wasn't ideal, and would disconnect if the bale was very heavy or out of shape. They fitted a different type of connection, and its been fine since then. They are great machines if your shed is long enough, and the passage is wide enough.

Thanks for the reply twin_beacon.. Do you find you would have to go along the feed barrier a few hours later and push in the silage to the cattle? we dont have the slab set up here for pit silage so bales it is for us and we'd make around 500 of them a year. So with that kind of volume of silage to be fed out I think a feeder like what you have would be a great addition. Id be very concious of avoiding injury to yer back with all the graping involved too so getting a machine to feed silage seems like a good purchase even if its a big initial cost. I think they would cost over 5k though. The Blaney x10 forager with the side extension stood out for me as the best option. By making up a kind of trough to stop cattle pushing the silage back out of their reach this would save having to go back every few hours to push in the silage to the barrier.. that why the extension on the Blaney looks like a great addition as it could feed the silage up in over the 'trough' and always in reach for the cattle.

The part time boy

Made my bails today . One plus to bails which makes no sense is it's nice to be involved in the process and I was drawing them .

Only 150 though

Sillycave

We do first cut into pit and then excess fields are done in bales, always like the bales when feeding as cows seem to love them and thrive much better imo and seem to clean everything on the feed passage
Find a pit great too though, easy to feed from and quality mostly good apart from around the wall but cows don't seem to clean as good on feed passage
The one thing that I hate about bales is not even the drawing, taking wraps and netting off it is cleaning up all the wraps and netting for disposal...did this yesterday and was not enjoying any of it but probably my own fault for not doing it during the year
On a side how do people manage the collection of the plastic and netting?

patsy_mccabe

Whatever it was about this year, but no birds whatsoever came near the bales. Was it the dry ground, I wonder? I bought 3 rolls of tape to patch them but never even open one of them. Not complaining mind you!!!:D.

This is a nice setup.

Bullocks

Thats a busy loader driver

Farmer_3650

Sillycave wrote: »

We do first cut into pit and then excess fields are done in bales, always like the bales when feeding as cows seem to love them and thrive much better imo and seem to clean everything on the feed passage
Find a pit great too though, easy to feed from and quality mostly good apart from around the wall but cows don't seem to clean as good on feed passage
The one thing that I hate about bales is not even the drawing, taking wraps and netting off it is cleaning up all the wraps and netting for disposal...did this yesterday and was not enjoying any of it but probably my own fault for not doing it during the year
On a side how do people manage the collection of the plastic and netting?

We do the same. First cut in Mid May and second cut in mid July. Both goes into a pit. Throughout the year, we bale fields that are too strong for grazing. These bales would be very good quality and would be fed to Bulls and Heifers when they are being finished for the factory.

So to answer the original question Pit vs Bales, it all depends on your system. To a small suckler/sheep farmer, bales is probably your best option. But I think to a dairy farmer or a large suckler farm like ours pit is not enough on its own, you need bales too especially when you need different qualities of silage for different animals.

The part time boy

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Whatever it was about this year, but no birds whatsoever came near the bales. Was it the dry ground, I wonder? I bought 3 rolls of tape to patch them but never even open one of them. Not complaining mind you!!!:D.

This is a nice setup.

Would it not be as quick if not quicker to have a wraper on the loader ?

st1979

The part time boy wrote:

Would it not be as quick if not quicker to have a wraper on the loader ?

Mounted tanco would be quicker but those tanco loader mounted wrappers are not great at taking off bales from a packed trailer. Can be done but hard on wrapper. That video in fairness looks a great system

The part time boy

st1979 wrote: »

Mounted tanco would be quicker but those tanco loader mounted wrappers are not great at taking off bales from a packed trailer. Can be done but hard on wrapper. That video in fairness looks a great system

Cool I no experience of loader wraper tbh

twin_beacon

divillybit wrote: »

Thanks for the reply twin_beacon.. Do you find you would have to go along the feed barrier a few hours later and push in the silage to the cattle? we dont have the slab set up here for pit silage so bales it is for us and we'd make around 500 of them a year. So with that kind of volume of silage to be fed out I think a feeder like what you have would be a great addition. Id be very concious of avoiding injury to yer back with all the graping involved too so getting a machine to feed silage seems like a good purchase even if its a big initial cost. I think they would cost over 5k though. The Blaney x10 forager with the side extension stood out for me as the best option. By making up a kind of trough to stop cattle pushing the silage back out of their reach this would save having to go back every few hours to push in the silage to the barrier.. that why the extension on the Blaney looks like a great addition as it could feed the silage up in over the 'trough' and always in reach for the cattle.

if ye are feeding that many bales, then I would definitely consider one. They vary from roughly 5-6.5k depending on the make and model, the side extension would add a bit more onto that. However, its a took that should last many winters. My dad had his second hip replacement last summer, he loves the machine. cattle do push the silage out with their heads, hoping to get a silage pusher (the one with 2 tyres) for the loader this winter

divillybit

We've a mchale bale splitter for over 10 years now and it does take alot of the hardship out of feeding the bales but theres still a good bit of pulling and dragging..our main shed is a 3 bay back to back slatted shed. We rent a 4 bay slatted shed also where you can have the space to back the tractor up at right angle to the barrier, split the bale and push it up to the barrier. Great comfort with that shed compared to the sheds with 11 ft passage as the tractor can push in the rest of the bale after a day of two. Back injuries are an occupational hazard in farming. Seems to me that people dont give enough consideration as to how the silage will actually be fed to the livestock when they are designing the sheds. So the bale unroller feeders seem to be the best job for the back to back type shed and our feed passage way would be too tight for a diet feeder. Diet feeders have divided opinions on here before!

Dakota Dan

divillybit wrote: »

We've a mchale bale splitter for over 10 years now and it does take alot of the hardship out of feeding the bales but theres still a good bit of pulling and dragging..our main shed is a 3 bay back to back slatted shed. We rent a 4 bay slatted shed also where you can have the space to back the tractor up at right angle to the barrier, split the bale and push it up to the barrier. Great comfort with that shed compared to the sheds with 11 ft passage as the tractor can push in the rest of the bale after a day of two. Back injuries are an occupational hazard in farming. Seems to me that people dont give enough consideration as to how the silage will actually be fed to the livestock when they are designing the sheds. So the bale unroller feeders seem to be the best job for the back to back type shed and our feed passage way would be too tight for a diet feeder. Diet feeders have divided opinions on here before!

What is the advantage of a bale splitter? I put in 2 whole bales in every bay with a bale spike and they last 5-6 days. Very little gets dragged in and only have to push silage in once in 5-6 days.