Clamp v big bale silage cost

Matt77

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
East Sussex
Being lazy here, anyone done the rough cost of each, got the kit to do both, clamp tieing up two good barns that could house young stock or straw, have to find an extra set of hands to run trailers for clamp. Use thick side sheet and double top sheet in clamp, use 6 layers of wrap on the 6 stringer bale's. Forager also getting tired. No problem feeding either in winter really at mo as use a wagon.
 

dinderleat

Member
Location
Wells
Clamp is roughly 40-50 acre bales £10 each stacked so depends on how heavy the crop is.
Can you do a bit of both? Heavy first cut clamp then the next cuts do bales?
 

Matt77

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
East Sussex
That's kind of what I'm doing at mo but 2nd cut normally goes in clamp too, 3rd and 4th in bale's, I feel it's a waste of a barn but that's how it's set up, has been for 30-40 year's I'd guess. Forager reliability is a concern these days, no such concerns for the baler and wrapper, but I'm aware bale's are dearer to produce.
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
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Moors Lad

Member
Location
N Yorks
If that`s Keir Starmer`s brother eating popcorn I`ll guarantee you he isn`t watching his brother making a speech (unless he`s hard of hearing!)... :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:

I guess you`ve got to take in to account how much you could "make" by using one of the buildings for cattle, and you`ve got to decide what`s the long term solution to the "ageing forager" problem . If you`ve got a good storage area for clamp silage it may be a long term cheaper option as I don`t see the price of wrap coming down long term..... There again wrapped stuff is sometimes easier to use if you don`t want to use a lot and would rather not break in to a clamp...
There`s no doubt that straw goes a lot further if it`s been stored dry so that`s another little fact to think over too.
 

Matt77

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
East Sussex
Had thought about getting a wagon instead of forager as that also gets away from needing harvest help, but would need to buy the wagon...
 

Fendt820

Member
Being lazy here, anyone done the rough cost of each, got the kit to do both, clamp tieing up two good barns that could house young stock or straw, have to find an extra set of hands to run trailers for clamp. Use thick side sheet and double top sheet in clamp, use 6 layers of wrap on the 6 stringer bale's. Forager also getting tired. No problem feeding either in winter really at mo as use a wagon.
Looked at buying some square silage bales the other day and it cost just shy of £18 a bale. That was contractor doing everything. From cut to stack.
 

Dog Bowl

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Cotswolds
Another benefit to bales is that you can be a bit more picky over what you cut and where you stack them. Ultimately you can try to take fields at optimum quality, stack separately and feed to the right groups of cattle as opposed to cutting all the grass in one hit and clamping it all in the same pit.
 

Pan mixer

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Near Colchester
I use about 1000 round bales a year.

I know that this uses a lot of plastic, 22 per roll if you use 6 layers, everyone can cost this all out easily.

Similarly with clamp you can cost out the contract charge, the cost of building a new clamp etc.

It is at the other end of things that the costs are so difficult to calculate;

As a Suckler herd finishing some stock and selling some as stores I don't want all my silage to be the same, my cows would be huger than they already are on the better silage I feed the finishers.

I house some cattle in the summer - our finished animals go through the shop and I need a continuous supply and haven't got time to go over the hills and far away to the other end of the farm to find a finished animal every couple of weeks. Therefore I need silage in small lots, the clamp face would be stale. This also applies when I get different lots in at different times in the autumn due to some fields being better than others at holding stock later.

With baling I can make a field or two at a time and have it in with a good forecast (or not) and spread my risk even leaving some to be hay later on if the weather turns out nice.

Clamp just isn't in it for me but if I fed a lot of milkers every day for 6 months I would be pretty cheesed about the time taken to unwrap bales and chase the plastic about on windy wet days (yes, I have an auto bale cutter but you still have to tidy up after)
 

Al R

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Wales
Rule of thumb used to be if the crop was over 6 rounds/acre it was cheaper in the clamp. Went passed a few stacks today of circa 5,000+ bales, one of them I know has made 2,000 spare bales then get locked down with TB so their glad to have it! No idea why some with 3-400 cows are still on bales with no clamp but they like the system and that’s their choice, I’ve seen and made plenty of clamps even with no walls and put on the fields that have had under 0.5% waste (weighed in and out and the waste was weighed)
 

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