Silage 2021

First cut being mown finally, hopefully wont be too much damage bringing it in

leoch wrote: »

Do u put the grease out in blobs or spread it about top of bale

Blob and an old paintbrush to spread it out.

Waste oil from service a tractor too.

Bass Reeves wrote: »

That will break down the plastic

Heard this before, haven't seen any evidence that it does. Even if it did it will only make one layer permeable, has to go through three more layers.

https://mobile.twitter.com/dubslife1/status/1405276114000351232

Somebody had a bad day at bales.

The Nutty M wrote: »

https://mobile.twitter.com/dubslife1/status/1405276114000351232

Somebody had a bad day at bales.

Couldn’t think of a worse spot for that to happen than sallins

K.G. wrote: »

Bales are really starting to take over in this country now and a lot of 100 cow+ operations going all bales.just wondering after this year are people happy with there doing or are they changing what they are doing.it seems to be a good year for the balers as they are getting huge numbers in fields and pits are full so likely to be busy for the rest of the year.pit contractors had a terrible time in West cork,got no run and when they did get going they were getting twice as many loads as should be.one thing I've noticed this year is ground is cutting well,others years in heavy crops it was harder to get stuff over the bed of the mower

All silage is done here with wagon, havent made a single bale in 3 years, was doing a 1000 plus a year before that, the contractor and plastic costs where out of control, simply couldn't keep doing them plus the ball-achce of feeding out and disposal of net and plastic

I’ve gone all bales here. Down to pure flexibility. I can take out fields whenever I want, paddocks too. There’s next to no waste and your not tied to getting a set amount into a pit at the one time. I’ve all first cut done here and each bit was done over a couple of weeks to suit each field. There’s nothing worse than having to throw back tyres in the sleet and rain in the middle of winter. All the plastic goes into a skip and a bale is dropped down on top to compress the wraps and there’s no hassle. I’ve the slab in and all and I just put bales in now. Another issue is a lot of my fields are only three to seven acres and most silage men want the big fields for speed of cutting.

Contractor here is doing all bales this year for a chap who usually has over 30 acres of woeful heavy first cut every year. Yard and passage back to field is a nightmare. Trailers parked harvester stopped and waiting for loads to be cleared. Waste of most of a day.He had some Dept check and they stopped him from making pit silage this year. Contractor is delighted this year Cutting and baling in dribs and drabs. Bales have to be drawn with handlers and stacked but it's not a big issue.

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Is it a small yard or is the contractor coming in with 150hp tractors and 16ft+ trailers?

Yes on both counts but if he filled the pit from the back the loader driver would have a much easier job. I've drawn into that yard with 20 years and it has got progressively worse.

mr.stonewall wrote: »

You are at a stage where pit is more viable than bales. With that tot you are on about 360 bales, which is approx 12 rolls of wrap,or €960 ( roll @€;90). A cover fo a out to do that amount of silage would be about €120. Saving of €840 in plastic alone. Factor in the time and cost of getting them bales in to the yard. This is an added cost. Local mechanic is saying the about of front axles wrecked from having to haul bales is unbelievable. Your talking about 900kg a bale. With a grab of silage, no more than 700kg. Then the hassle of hoping up and down opening the bales, compared to pulling back the pit cover once a week.

Pit would easily save you over €1000 a year. Look at a tams and vat back it would make it a cheap job being paid for with the plastic savings.

There still is a place for some bales, especially for the start and finish of the winter. Trying to reduce my bale count here, every year, put extra in the pit this year, have taken out strong ground as hay already, and have only made 13silage bales so far. This time last year I had over 90 made

At present contractor is charging 10/ bake to cut, rake bale and wrap. Averaged 8.1 bales/ acre. Adding plastic costs at 3.5/ bale its costing 110 euro/ acres. Yes it has got to be bough into the yard. However absolutely no waste. Drystock men doing pit around are averaging a week later than me most years as pit men are tied up doing dairy farmers silage. Pit men only allow 12-18 hour wilt...if that and if you are only doing 15-20 acres if it p!ssing rain the day they arrive you still have to get it done

You are not factoring in the cost of a silage slab. Yes I have a slab under.mine but technically if stacking 2 high you do not need it. Slab will last 100+ year with bales. In general pit slabs need redoing after 25-30. Take it that a slab costs 10k every 25 years that 400/ year and you pay up front.

If you have a pit you need a shear grab, that needs edging and maintenance. You can feed bales with a 200 euro bale spike. As well you only need a rear spike to feed and a 2wd tractor of 70-80 hp. This is a huge difference if anything happens to your main tractor. Saw a lad give 250 euro to hire a tractor to feed silage this year while the clutch was done.on his own.

IMO there is absolutely nothing between the cost of bales and put for larger operator's, on smaller scale bales win hands down.

As well 360 bales would be about 45 acres of silage with new balers I doubt if you would get a cover for 120 euro for it. It would probably entail.opening the pit a second if not a third time. Most lads are not wilting bale silage for 40-60 hours it a totally different product to put silage picked up after 12 hours( and there could be a nighttime in that or a few showers) and loaded into a pit.

The seepage that came out of my pit this year would have fitted in a 250 litre barrell, the rest was left as fertlizer out in the field worth another few euro/ acre

K.G. wrote: »

Bales are really starting to take over in this country now and a lot of 100 cow+ operations going all bales.just wondering after this year are people happy with there doing or are they changing what they are doing.it seems to be a good year for the balers as they are getting huge numbers in fields and pits are full so likely to be busy for the rest of the year.pit contractors had a terrible time in West cork,got no run and when they did get going they were getting twice as many loads as should be.one thing I've noticed this year is ground is cutting well,others years in heavy crops it was harder to get stuff over the bed of the mower

Around here some lads have went from pit to bales and back to pit.
Dome lads have went pit to bales and stayed that way.
Other lads have went bales to pit and stayed.
Others went bales to pit and back to bales.

I can get pit done here at about 70% of the price that bales are costing me so I do the first cut into the pit and then take bales here and there as the opportunity arises.

When you are in drystock and working on a smaller scale bales are much handier. Last September I housed 10-12 heavy bullocks for finishing bales allowed me the flexibility to do that. I was using about a bale every 4 days as the cattle were on ration.
During the winter I had 4-5 stores outside a bale was providing feed for 6-7 days, you would be out with a shear grab every day or second day.

As you let cattle off you invariably end up with some small bunch left inside again bales give you flexibility to manage that.

I rehoused 28 cattle for 10 days in early May because of the poor growth again the bales came into play.

When grass was still right Friesian cattle were value in the mart I bought seven a bale used to last them a week. I had them inside until growth picked up.


If you are on a bigger scale then be may not be for you but in drystock and on smaller operations they are much more flexibile than a pit.

This is the reason lads are using them. You can carry a weeks feeding for 5-6 yearling 4-5 miles on the back on a 60-70hp 2wd tractor

Track9 wrote: »

===================================

When silage is in the yard, think as we Suckler Farm not making any money. Then it's sit down & do the numbers on two of more expensive costs.

Silage: Am going to examine sums behind getting a JFC or such like & eliminating the ridiculous costs ( eg 4 euros of plastic to cover one round bale, insane ) doing one's own silage & looking for a second landowner to join & share the costs.
Slurry: Same with Slurry as we paying thru the nose on that.

Track if you think that buying 20-50k worth of gear and spending 60-80 hours a year it will make such an economic difference to you system you are mistaken. At the end of it all you will be maybe 6-800 euro better off..........u til the year you are half way through baling with rain forecast and the baler breaks down

tanko wrote: »

Yeah, I put on the slurry asap after baling and fert a week or two later.
Saw a neighbour putting fert in a field that was baled yesterday. Is it not a bit pointless doing this so soon with no grass in the field to grow?

Grass will have grown by the time the fertiliser is down at the roots, you're wasting a couple weeks growth by not having it out.
silage ground is starved after cutting, it needs nitrogen quick to get going and slurry is too slow to act.

When the silage is cut( not baled) or about to be cut I ring my slurry contractor and events are dictated by this.I cut on a Saturday this year, I was baling on Tuesday, Rand contractor day before cutting and he said to ring him when it was due to be baled he probably be able to spread it that week. He spread slurry on the Friday. We had rain that weekend put out CAN and 18-6-12 following Thursday. Even with the slurry it was hard to follow the tracks spreading fertlizer

zetecescort wrote: »

Excuse my ignorance but when lifting silage like this why Is the pick up on one side and the spout blowing to the other? Would it not be easier to have the spout filling to the same side as the pickup so you could watch both out the same window?

Is it not to do with the preference for working clockwise - so that by having the trailer on the left it is predominantly driving over ground that has already been lifted and nothing should be driving over the grass to be lifted.

mythos110 wrote: »

Lads can find it hard enough to stay beside you on the left where the tractor and harvester are right beside them. If they were on the other side they probably end up driving into the pickup knowing my luck!

Also, its easier for the trailer drivers to load themselves when looking over the right shoulder than over their left. I use a camera on the spout to save my neck and back a little bit but you'd still be sore after 2 days. Don't know how the old boys used to manage a few months of it!

Backed in silage for many years, you get used to it after 2 to 3 days. The neck thaws out.

There was some heading out on about 3-4 acres of it. This was a paddock where there was hybrid previously and there is still a bit in it. Some of the rest was just starting but the heat would have headed it out this week.

I expect DM to be above 50% a if it was raked 2-3 hours before baling it would be above 60%. I would not panic about heading out grass with drystock as long as it is not headed out 10-15days. Grass flowers first and it takes 10-15days to make seed heads. This got slurry after 1st cut 2-2.5k gallons /acre and about 50-60 units of N but it got a lot of rain over the last 6-7 weeks