Fodder

theaceofspies

How are things looking?
Have enough silage/straw here and the sun is blazing for the last week.

Will it last this good until March though?

Mooooo

Have plenty here till April anyway. Quality in the pit isn't what I'd like it to be tho. Paddocks closed early seem to have a nice cover, later closed ones not so much. Haven't done a walk yet tho.

bogman_bass

Enough silage untill April plus a bank of hay. No panic here

Say my name

Demand was higher 40 days ago with poorer quality silage and bigger rumen space. But now I've better quality silage and cows near/are calving. So the same quantity is not being ate.
I should have enough till middle of April at this rate. Cows are calving atm and there's grass in the paddocks so very soon they'll be out and it'll help more.

GrasstoMilk

Yeah. Only 1/3 of the way through the pit and have 200 bales aswell as maize to feed. Lots of grass around aswell. Half the farm has got slurry, grass will start to move.once warm days come

Timmaay

Flying through fodder here, fair bit of very average wet stuff, so feeding hay and maize alongside it to drys (I got too much maize in fairness, and at 10 to 12c/kgdm its cheaper than grass silage ha). Reasonable wedge of grass and got youngstock and milkers out. In terms of how long the feed is left, if there is no grass in the diet I'd say I'd be fully out of fodder by Paddys day, but thats largely the worst case scenario, I'll have no problems sourcing fodder well before then if it looks that tight. Ideally I'll hold over a pit until next year though.

Lesson learnt from last summer is that trying to make bales out of wet silage is an absolute economic disaster 2bh.

davidk1394

Plenty of stuff here aswell and a good bank of grass. Theres heaps of stuff on DD at good value also.

Mooooo

Timmaay wrote: »

Flying through fodder here, fair bit of very average wet stuff, so feeding hay and maize alongside it to drys (I got too much maize in fairness, and at 10 to 12c/kgdm its cheaper than grass silage ha). Reasonable wedge of grass and got youngstock and milkers out. In terms of how long the feed is left, if there is no grass in the diet I'd say I'd be fully out of fodder by Paddys day, but thats largely the worst case scenario, I'll have no problems sourcing fodder well before then if it looks that tight. Ideally I'll hold over a pit until next year though.

Lesson learnt from last summer is that trying to make bales out of wet silage is an absolute economic disaster 2bh.

Back when we were buying maize we always fed a bit to dries no issue with it. Have a bit under the current pit of silage and the only issue is the way the cows will belt each other to get at the maize if putting a grab out every second or third grab. Have an old feeder here but starting it up and filling it 2 or 3 times in the day is a bollix, assuming it would stay going at all

Bass Reeves

Mooooo wrote: »

Back when we were buying maize we always fed a bit to dries no issue with it. Have a bit under the current pit of silage and the only issue is the way the cows will belt each other to get at the maize if putting a grab out every second or third grab. Have an old feeder here but starting it up and filling it 2 or 3 times in the day is a bollix, assuming it would stay going at all

I am a firm believer in keeping things as simple as possible..no point in making things any more difficult than they should be.

On fodder. I had to house about 20 finishing cattle for an average of over 50 days. As well I had to house stores over 14 days earlier partly because of the weather and because finishing cattle were still around. I got greedy and bought about 10 extra stores as well. This has left me tight on silage. I have bought 50 bales of dry silage that should get me to early April.

I would consider what I bought arriving in the yard at cost of production.

Sacrolyte

How much a ton does pitted silage usually make?

I says

Let light stock out to graze silage ground today they can stay out now. Only five the ones getting bullied at the feed barrier. I’ll give them meal while there out.

Timmaay

Bass Reeves wrote: »

I am a firm believer in keeping things as simple as possible..no point in making things any more difficult than they should be.

On fodder. I had to house about 20 finishing cattle for an average of over 50 days. As well I had to house stores over 14 days earlier partly because of the weather and because finishing cattle were still around. I got greedy and bought about 10 extra stores as well. This has left me tight on silage. I have bought 50 bales of dry silage that should get me to early April.

I would consider what I bought arriving in the yard at cost of production.

I'd happily give up maize to keep things KISS for winter feeding also, however the simple fact is its too good of an insurance risk against a drought here, it usually works out cheaper than 1st cut and most definitely alot cheaper than any sort of 2nd cut or anyway wet grass silage. I could get away with only growing 6ac for the milkers, however instead I've had 13ac which is the very same effort of 6ac the last 2 years, with maybe 7ac given to milkers, 4 to drys and the rest sold to neighbours in March when I know I don't need it.

Panch18

Our bales are strange this year - you open them and plenty of water in the bag, ye the silage is fairly dry and cows drinking water mad on it. Quality is good and cows are in excellent condition now

Should have enough to get us out without to much issue

On the grass front - we had 0 growth during the winter, paddocks that were stopped early have very poor covers on them. It could be a late enough spring, at our place anyway

endainoz

Plenty of bales here anyway. Still going through 2018s first cut bales. Cows are mad for it, good storng smell off it. This year's bales seem a bit dry but handy for the young stock all the same.

jaymla627

Timmaay wrote: »

I'd happily give up maize to keep things KISS for winter feeding also, however the simple fact is its too good of an insurance risk against a drought here, it usually works out cheaper than 1st cut and most definitely alot cheaper than any sort of 2nd cut or anyway wet grass silage. I could get away with only growing 6ac for the milkers, however instead I've had 13ac which is the very same effort of 6ac the last 2 years, with maybe 7ac given to milkers, 4 to drys and the rest sold to neighbours in March when I know I don't need it.

What kind of yields you averaging per acre dm wise, tillage man has a 22 acre field beside us that he will set for maize, trying to do the sums on it

Mooooo

Low to high they say would be 18 to 24 tonne/ acre so probably 6 to 7tonne dm/ acre would be average altho up yer way could be more. Used to be around 950 in to the pit per acre with a 3 to 5 mile draw. Could work a deal for slurry if he is nearby. Wouldn't go without plastic no matter where you are. Good year you may say there was no need but in a bad year you may have feckall without it

jaymla627

Mooooo wrote: »

Low to high they say would be 18 to 24 tonne/ acre so probably 6 to 7tonne dm/ acre would be average altho up yer way could be more. Used to be around 950 in to the pit per acre with a 3 to 5 mile draw. Could work a deal for slurry if he is nearby. Wouldn't go without plastic no matter where you are. Good year you may say there was no need but in a bad year you may have feckall without it

Will be putting dung on it if I take it , less than a kilometer from yard so it's very handy, keen to keep him onside as buying alot of beet of him already and given the way nitrates is going having a tillage farmer with a few hundred acres beside us to export slurry to will be no harm.....

Timmaay

Mooooo wrote: »

Low to high they say would be 18 to 24 tonne/ acre so probably 6 to 7tonne dm/ acre would be average altho up yer way could be more. Used to be around 950 in to the pit per acre with a 3 to 5 mile draw. Could work a deal for slurry if he is nearby. Wouldn't go without plastic no matter where you are. Good year you may say there was no need but in a bad year you may have feckall without it

You were getting a bargain at 950e into the pit, nearly across the board contractors charging 55e/ton, for a 20t crop that 1100/ac, 24t more like 1300e. My rough full sums have it at 32e/ton into the pit here without land charge, and 38e/ton putting a 200e/ac land charge on. So should be a tidy enough profit per ac for the tillage farmer, esp if he can get a sfp also on them acs. Biggest risk for him is the harvest, go YouTube some wet maize harvest videos for what an absolute sh1tstorm it can be ha.
The 2 areas I'd get a proper agreement from the contractor would be the seed he uses, theres a pure bulk maize crop seed out there that totally sacrifices the starch and dm for a bigger bulk crop, great for extra tons but no use to the dairyfarmer, the 2nd thing is don't let him harvest it too early when the crop is still green, again it weights great then and more tons/ac, however the dm could be only 20% against 30% a few weeks later. 30 30 is the rule of thumb for a good crop, 30% starch and 30% dm.

And yes don't even dream about no plastic, I've seen fields of 3ft high maize getting ploughed back into the ground come August time because there absolutely won't be any point harvesting them ha.

Mooooo

Had been buying from the same lads for about 10 years circa 25 to 30 acres. We harvested whenever the crop was ready with the cob at the right stage, was nearly always 3 to 4 weeks after seeing others starting. In fairness the quality was generally good and when the son started taking over fully he looked for the analysis so he could compare to the varieties used. It's good feed super for winter milk. Waste became an issue as the crows became nigh on unstoppable along with face management as cows went out and less used daily. also wondered if any visitors to the pit in the night were a tb issue for me. Vet told me of one farm who had an issue who was feeding beet with a few years and he setup a camera and saw badgers crawling all over it. Vet said maize could be similar altho I never saw it myself

peterofthebr

hi
my silage bales this year are close to hay. cattle love whats left from last year (round bales are good for about 1.5yrs i believe). But im inquiring....
ive got a couple of bales that are a bit of black near the center - lad saying hes thinking
[1] its due to either too much slurry on the silage fields or
[2] the grass was a bit strong when 1st load of slurry was put out?

......ever see blackness in round silage bales and whats causing it?..in previous years there was often a red tint in parts of the bales.. sure if you know what that is also let me know - i plan on getting the fields soil sampled this year...in case too much fert going on..cheers

Water John

They wouldn't preserve right if it was slurry. Are we talking about mould here?
One form is blue and green the other is red and white.

farming93

Would last year's silage bales last till next autumn ? Good quality dry bales, I don't want to sell them if I can help it as here is prone to drought during the summer months.

Bass Reeves

farming93 wrote: »

Would last year's silage bales last till next autumn ? Good quality dry bales, I don't want to sell them if I can help it as here is prone to drought during the summer months.

They should as long as no pin holes from crows. If stacked 3 hign feed as much if the top row as you can and keep bales from lower rows.

Dakota Dan

theaceofspies wrote: »

How are things looking?
Have enough silage/straw here and the sun is blazing for the last week.

Will it last this good until March though?

Early days yet, it could go either way.

Sacrolyte

Btw how much does Maize off the pit trade for?

CHOPS01

farming93 wrote: »

Would last year's silage bales last till next autumn ? Good quality dry bales, I don't want to sell them if I can help it as here is prone to drought during the summer months.

Have a mixture of bales left here. A single cut last year and first and second cut 2018.
Best of the lot are the first cut 2018. Baled on June 23rd during the heat wave.

endainoz

CHOPS01 wrote: »

Have a mixture of bales left here. A single cut last year and first and second cut 2018.
Best of the lot are the first cut 2018. Baled on June 23rd during the heat wave.

What way are the second cut 2018 bales? Had a few left over myself but pretty poor in quality, they were still made on good weather though.

Water John

Any ball park on price ex yard?

endainoz

I doubt anyone would be paying more than 20 a bale at the moment, plenty around my way anyway. But who knows in six weeks?

CHOPS01

endainoz wrote: »

What way are the second cut 2018 bales? Had a few left over myself but pretty poor in quality, they were still made on good weather though.

Baled in mid September. Cut dry and baled the same day.
Have sagged alot but cattle eating them no bother and no waste bar any of them that were holed.