Bale weight and pros of chopping?

[som farmer]

our man has a fusion, full knife chop for us, as used in tmr, or racks, more grass per bale, better air exclusion, less bales etc, easy for bales to weigh 1 ton, that's a lot of grass, we know that, as his baler, managed to jam a bale, between chamber and wrapper, luckily not netted, it took 3 hours to get out, handful after handful, after handful. Not really sure what the problem was, a mixture of grass not drying, steep hill, or ?.
When we had our own, class, fixed chamber, slower you went, more per bale.
We had to call in another balerman, in a hurry last week, 5 acres, half a field, 2 trailor lads, refused to continue, gate way's with stone posts, were to narrow, to continue, they are narrow, and a gate post would be very expensive, and it was 1.00 am. This chap used plastic wrap, instead of net, then wrapped again, like that, no net.

 

[M-J-G]

But thats baling your own.
Contractors tend to drive like fury (understandably), so it does make a difference to have it chopped.
But I do agree changing down a few gears would also make the difference.

I bale for others too and do exactly the same, knives or not.
I haven't found that knives let you drive faster, fast pace equals softer bales regardless of chop.

 

[Poorbuthappy]

I bale for others too and do exactly the same, knives or not.
I haven't found that knives let you drive faster, fast pace equals softer bales regardless of chop.

Thats my point.
Knives make you (or most contractors) drive slower. How much of the extra in a bale is from the slower speed, and how much from the chopping effect, I wouldn't like to say. But mine and most other people's experience on here with contractors is that chopped bales have more in them.

But personally I prefer them chopped anyway, as there is less waste at the feeder.

 

[som farmer]

a local contractor swopped his baler out, belt to rollers, less knives etc, my neighbour worked it out, as 20% less in a bale, compared to the new one, and an increase in price, because he had 'had' to change the baler. One has to be aware sometimes, this one would be down to greed. Last year, he had to call in help, to catch up with the baling, he put £2 a bale on the bill, to his customers !

 

[M-J-G]

I assume everyone who is worried about getting every penny's worth out of their plastic/contractor is managing their grassland to it's optimum.

From what I see there is more grass and money wasted on mismanaged seeded rough grass that's trampled by stock or topped and grass being baled up in less than desirable conditions than what would pay for an extra couple of dozen bales to be baled and wrapped.

The amount of feed value balanced with DM in every bale is of more importance than an extra few Kg of overall weight.
I can go out and bale in the rain and make bales that will likely create stress fractures on the bale handler, but it would be sh1t feeding.

 

[Chae1]

I assume everyone who is worried about getting every penny's worth out of their plastic/contractor is managing their grassland to it's optimum.

From what I see there is more grass and money wasted on mismanaged seeded rough grass that's trampled by stock or topped and grass being baled up in less than desirable conditions than what would pay for an extra couple of dozen bales to be baled and wrapped.

The amount of feed value balanced with DM in every bale is of more importance than an extra few Kg of overall weight.
I can go out and bale in the rain and make bales that will likely create stress fractures on the bale handler, but it would be sh1t feeding.

Trampling grass is holistic grazing!

It's all the rage you know.

 

[som farmer]

you only get out, what you put in. Wrapping, gives the opportunity to cut/wrap each field at the ideal stage, how many actually do that, might vary.

 

[Poorbuthappy]

I assume everyone who is worried about getting every penny's worth out of their plastic/contractor is managing their grassland to it's optimum.

From what I see there is more grass and money wasted on mismanaged seeded rough grass that's trampled by stock or topped and grass being baled up in less than desirable conditions than what would pay for an extra couple of dozen bales to be baled and wrapped.

The amount of feed value balanced with DM in every bale is of more importance than an extra few Kg of overall weight.
I can go out and bale in the rain and make bales that will likely create stress fractures on the bale handler, but it would be sh1t feeding.

That seems a bit of a spurious argument.
Why can't anyone pay attention to all those things? The waste I was getting with cows at a feed barrier with unchopped bales far outweighs any extra cost besides the other savings.

 

[M-J-G]

That seems a bit of a spurious argument.
Why can't anyone pay attention to all those things? The waste I was getting with cows at a feed barrier with unchopped bales far outweighs any extra cost besides the other savings.

People can pay attention to what they want, I'm not bothered, I just assume that those who are bothered about bale weight have everything else pretty well nailed and are baling optimum quality forage.
Bale weight is pretty far down my list of things I find important.

Ps. I wasn't talking about chopping

 

[Cowmansam]

If your paying per bale how much the bale weighs matters

 

[steveR]

I prefer the half chop option to the full set of knives tbh, bales fall apart on you with the full chop and they are very heavy to handle.

Found chopped bales were an A1 sod to handle after the wrap was taken off... Possibly needed extra net!!

 

[som farmer]

Found chopped bales were an A1 sod to handle after the wrap was taken off... Possibly needed extra net!!

our contractor has put on 1 extra wrap/net, for the last 8 yrs, costs b all extra, and saves about 90% broken bales, silage not to bad, but hay/straw can easily 'come adrift' net wise, and you have a massive heap to sort out. For us, chopped silage bales are nearly a must, most go through the tmr, so you have quality, bulk, and fewer bales to haul, what's not to like ? Easy, stinking net wrap !

 

[michael N123]

Found chopped bales were an A1 sod to handle after the wrap was taken off... Possibly needed extra net!!

Just cut the end off first drop it in the feeder and cut the net and wrap off together with W Stanley knife

 

[Greythundercloudys]

What speed do you bale at on a nice crop,?.

 

[M-J-G]

If your paying per bale how much the bale weighs matters

Everybody pays per bale in some way or another, but an extra few kgs in a bale pales into insignificance on many places where grassland management is lacking or bales get damaged.

 

[Cowmansam]

Well it’s sort off irrelevant what’s in the bale isn’t it obviously we all want the best forage but if it is what it is still want as much packed in a bale as possible

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Everybody pays per bale in some way or another, but an extra few kgs in a bale pales into insignificance on many places where grassland management is lacking or bales get damaged.

We're not necessarily talking a few kgs. I bought some bales from a local guy who does a lot of contract baling. His bales lasted the cows exactly half as long as those my contractor baled me. And it certainly wasn't due to better quality increasing intake rates.

 

[Sid]

Everybody pays per bale in some way or another, but an extra few kgs in a bale pales into insignificance on many places where grassland management is lacking or bales get damaged.

Speed of wrapping as well.
We are all in house now and wrapping ASAP has captured more energy.


There is always that balance between speed and volume in a bale. The last bale when there is feet to go and the buzzer sounds for net if you slow right down and give the baler chance, you will get that extra part row in.
What you haven't got the time to do is do it for every bake.

Someone locally has a belt baler now, there is some grass in those and the 5ft hay bales take some believing!

 

[M-J-G]

We're not necessarily talking a few kgs. I bought some bales from a local guy who does a lot of contract baling. His bales lasted the cows exactly half as long as those my contractor baled me. And it certainly wasn't due to better quality increasing intake rates.

Why were you buying bales?

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Why were you buying bales?

Because I had lost some grass keep and was short of grub.
You don't know the joys and trials of farming with short term keep?