In my head, we will graze right through as pay back for such a horrid summer. Prepared to be disappointed thoI'm sure. Hope it greens up for you soon.
And I'd chew my right arm off to be grazing in november, december, February and March.
Silage Season 2018
- Thread starter Bald Rick
- Start date
surprisefarmer
Member
- Location
- North West NI
Out of interest, how many acres do you do like that, is it not a slow process?
You should be included, I spent a long time tidying up my silage pit after the shape the contractor left it in.
You should be included, I spent a long time tidying up my silage pit after the shape the contractor left it in.
Dead Rabbits
Member
- Location
- 'Merica
Surely an in-line wrapper would cut plastic use?
where abouts in antrim are youThird cut started. Grabbing a bit in between showers. August never seems to be a good month for us. Weather always broken. The last time we did third cut in one go is five years ago.
Yields are light, but then it only started growing three weeks ago when the damp started to come.
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That's the one man army, as he likes to be called.
- Location
- Northern Ireland
Out of interest, how many acres do you do like that, is it not a slow process?
You should be included, I spent a long time tidying up my silage pit after the shape the contractor left it in.
Yeah it's slow, but speed is a relative concept.
. This cut we'll manage 130acres in about a day and a halfs lifting, being a mixture of near hand and 3-4 mile cart. Another 70 of 3-4 mile cart to do in the next window. Roughly another day and a half again.surprisefarmer
Member
- Location
- North West NI
That's good going considering all the labour that is required. I put in 50 acres on Monday in 6 hours, but there was the harvester driver, buckrake driver and 3 men carting. 20 acres 1 mile away and the rest is on the same block as the yard.
Good going
Good going
Farmer_1994
Member
- Location
- Oakbank, Manitoba, Canada
Inline works and we have done for two years didn’t work the best for us. Had mold issues in a lot of our tubes. The flexibility of individual wrap is the reason we do silage that way. I can pick from multiple cuts to make the most consistent ration all year and not worry about the next bales heating as we had in tubeline. I like that within 30 seconds of that bale being made its wrapped and ensiling already. I feel we get a far better product this way and that pays for the extra wrap in itself.
Dont forget its in there mind. 1st load next may, all excited to be at the silage and BANG
Roll the sheet back then put on a row of bales with the front loader, then just keep rolling the sheet forward and putting on another row of bales. It's wrapped straw so we were able to push them about to where we wanted them.
Ballygreenan
Member
- Location
- Tyrone NI
H
How do the bales go when wrapped? Does the straw not sweat or mould a bit?
Don't know yet as this is the first time we have tried it! Cheaper than a shed if it works. Most that I asked said it would be ok, then again they were trying to sell me straw
- Location
- Northern Ireland
I was going to say they were parful good bales for third cut grass!
How did the new chopper perform this season @Bald Rick?
holywell farmer
Member
- Location
- holywell, north wales
Will last the winter the amount in the clamp
TBH I was very nervous about spending that sort of money but it has gone like a dream (touch wood) and milk is up by 4-5 litres/cow/day across the herd which suggests that intakes are up.
With the very dry crops, being able to chop the stems fine has worked well.
Still got another cut to go - about 400 acres so need an Indian summer!
Has milked dropped since the big switch on?
Yes because they are now x2 rather than x3 for the moment but only by 400 litres/day (about 1/cow) which isn't too bad. We are expecting an increase over robots when we go x3 due to not maximising heifer potential on the robots because of pressure of numbers