Hard to believe after the spring we’ve had but I saw my first silage outfit of the year this morning .
Mine is very mixed, there's abit fit to cut. And then there's another bit not fit to graze nearly. None was grazed this year.
Silage around here this last week or so. No surprise anymore how early some start.
saw some raked ready for baling this evening - there’d be more on the lawn……
Cutting now to feed out in a few weeks
YE seen a lad mowing yesterday evening, there was no pressure on the tractor mowing thats for sure... it was fairly light looking. I only have the fert out on my own but then again I am only going for 1 cut.
Will hopefully cut some of 1st cut next week, probably 5-6 bales acre. Waste of time and money making a big heap of middling silage for milking cows. Silage fields cut in a 3-4 cut system are far more efficient producing feed than fields cut only once or twice in heavy cuts.
Anyone at the event in Cuffesgrange yesterday? Any good?
I wasn’t but they hit the jackpot with weather
A fella here made square bales of hay. Maybe he was trying to beat his own record.
Baled them dry anyway.
I see farm theory done half is first cut 150 acres. Was watching his tik tok and thinking to myself this lad is good and thinks he’s better than that again and he also does winter milking, he will do prob 5cuts this year now he’s off to an early start but wonder why he’s not doing 50acres of maize silage I think it would be a no brainer for him
I saw a big silage outfit bale a crop in the pouring rain once when good weather was coming that weekend. I'll never understand sticking so strict to calendar farming but maybe I'm the one doing it wrong.
Suppose you never know the full circumstances. Farmer could have been going away, sick relative, a wedding, etc.
equally, there’s plenty of farmers that have minimal interest in the land and it’s just a case of getting the job done regardless.
Doing ours next week, got no fertiliser. Too much on it to graze and there'd be too many bales to deal with so it's going in the pit. Never cut this early before
Have to make a decision here aswell, ill try for the 10th anyway see how it goes. Was in the north today, lot of silage cut.
Done some of my own a few days ago and like yourself no fertilizer. I went up to the field with the spreader 3 weeks ago and turned in the gate and went home again as I said there was too much on it for spreading.
Had 6 bales an acre off it during the week. I’m sure there’s a few neighbours with similar opinions to some on here wondering why I’d be cutting a light crop so early but it’s the cheapest silage I’m going to make this year.
I did that last year and it was very good silage. Leafy but easy conserve as silage. I'm hopefully doing the same again this week and then I'll load on the slurry and fert.
Just for me then where it is in the stack then it'll be the last silage fed in spring next year when the cows will be calved and milking. So a few angles covered.
You'd always be picking up some new method or practice every year or experience.
Doing the same here this week. Did you find it sour last year without the fertiliser to sweeten it up. Tho I suppose if cut in good weather and sugars right with sun it should help sweetness as well as fermentation
The opposite without the fertiliser. Now i have done things maybe different than other farmers like gypsum, burnt lime, molasses in slurry, over the years.
Just this evening I noticed the calves are not really bothering with the meal which I put in this afternoon. I moved them into a shed beside three dry cows Saturday. I'm splitting a silage bale between the cows and calves. They were in another house prior on straw and meal and hoovering up the meal. Now today they've filled up on the silage and are non plussed really on the meal. That's this leafy silage replacing both straw and meal to the calves. The cows don't really eat much silage when it's good too. It's like there's so much sugar or brix they require and they'll consume more to get that amount if the amount is low in the forage. If it's high they'll eat less kgs.
Pictures of the silage and the meal not eaten this evening. Still on milk.
It's nothing to do with me. But it's only coincidental. A homeopathy farmer in Cork is going feeding their calves wet silage to replace meal both inside and outside on pasture. They are doing this on advice from a homeopathy farmer in New Zealand that's eliminated meal feeding in calves by replacing with as top quality wet grass silage as possible made.
Your ground is different with all them things your doing this last few years I'd imagine regardless
There'd be no herbicide either on this nor for years on this particular silage.
any prices on pit silage- wagon or swig propelled?
I asked my lad and he simply wont/can't answer. Thats with harvester. Baler man was talking about going back to net wrap to save a euro/bale. No full price either.
100% on this …30 acres ready to cut once 2 good days come ..red clover and normal grass silage .will be ear marked for milking cows next spring
Same price here as last year, 85 a load for wagon plus vat and 13 a acre plus vat for raking, offered to supply the diseal and knock it off didnt want to go that way , 15 litres a load on average, bringing circa 2 acres of grass on a 3km average round-trip...
Self-propelled crew locally reckons 165 a acre up 15 on last year for short draws, once diseal dosent go crazy in price
any price on all in job on the bales ??
Yea the best silage you’ll make every year is the silage you’ll make at this time of year as long as the weather is right.
I baled up that bit last week after, just shy of 6 bales an acre, very happy with that considering no expense went into growing it. Cattle were out grazing around the edges over the weekend so it’ll get slurry or fert this week.
Knocked a heavy enough field this eve even though there’s to be bits of showers around tomorrow but I need the field back for grazing or I’ll be drawing cattle around the roads in 3 or 4 weeks time so I said I’d chance it. The joys of a fragmented farm. I’d be expecting 8 to 10 bales an acre depending on how it wilts. It only got 1 bag of urea per acre in March so won’t be dear silage either. It was reseeded last year so the power is in it because of that.
I don’t know would I be brave enough to feed wet silage to calves but one thing I’ve learned over the years after making silage every which way it can be made for feeding to weanlings, stores and finishing stock is the only thing that’s worse than having silage too wet is having it too dry.
Anyone pulled the trigger yet?
I see a few small bits knocked for bales but no big outfits yet.
Weather looking iffy next week, might go this weekend
I'm knocking 5 acres of red clover this eve, for baking Friday. My other meadows are all over the place, I've two fields, which weren't grazed, which should be ready in two weeks and 10 acres that was grazed that's another two weeks behind that. Considering baling the last 10 acres as don't want to open the pit for a third time.
I'm getting mine tested for nitrates tomorrow and I'll have to pull the trigger then if it's wet next week.
Wasn't grazed and received minimal fertilizer but looks good and leafy. If only the heat stuck around a bit longer.
