custard
Member
- Location
- scottish borders
With plastic now costing £2.50/bale +disposal, what are the relative costs for making Clamp or big bale silage. All done by contractors? Thankyou.
Cost of Clamp vs Baled Silage
- Thread starter custard
- Start date
davidroberts30
Member
- Location
- pembrokeshire
Any more than 3 bales to the acre and clamp is cheaper
Chae1
Member
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
M-J-G
Member
Bale everything here just now, but if circumstances allowed I would be keen for a pit. Much less hassle.
Lot depends on your circumstances, if you have mowing land all over the place and lots of different types of grass then bales give you the opportunity to cut grass when it’s convenient and is at its best. With clamp you need to cut a fair bit each time and so need to be organised and can get expensive if you have light crops and cart long distances. But with the price of plastic i can see a lot of folk going back to clamps
How much do you cost in the clamp capital and repairs at per ton. What life span do you spread that over?
pit costs £30000/500t/20 years is £3 in cost before interest and maintenance.
Then add in the shear grab and possibly wagon cost v tipping a bale in a ring feeder etc.
Just saying.
- Location
- East Sussex
Depends how optimistic you are of the future of livestock. Can’t say I’d be chucking serious money at a silage pit at the minute.
davidroberts30
Member
- Location
- pembrokeshire
Extra time cutting plastic off,disposal at 90/ton.....
I worked out a few years ago comparing wagon,bales and forager excluding pit maintainence
that to get the grass off the field with all contractor costs any more than 3 bales to the acre then it was cheaper to get pit gang in
I worked out a few years ago comparing wagon,bales and forager excluding pit maintainence
that to get the grass off the field with all contractor costs any more than 3 bales to the acre then it was cheaper to get pit gang in
M-J-G
Member
No more need for a wagon with a clamp than bales.
Possibly less need, if you have someone with half a brain on a shear grab.
- Location
- East Sussex
It’s more than just the pit though. Don’t think I’m being argumentative: we have clamps here.
There is also the time to feed out. I should think you’d get a lot more grub in front of a bunch of cows by laying bales out vs blocks. You get a lot more bale silage in a box feeder than blocks.
If you had an off farm job you’d be wanting bales I reckon.
There is also the time to feed out. I should think you’d get a lot more grub in front of a bunch of cows by laying bales out vs blocks. You get a lot more bale silage in a box feeder than blocks.
If you had an off farm job you’d be wanting bales I reckon.
The problem lies in the last paragraph!!
davidroberts30
Member
- Location
- pembrokeshire
Not if you have a sheargrab with a capacity of more than more 1.4 cubic meters
- Location
- South West
And thats from a wagon man.
I have always worked on 6 bales an acre against a football team (self propelled forager, trailers and buckrake) I guess a wagon on a very short run may work out far cheaper and be nearer to 3 bales an acre.
There's hell of alot to be said for fresh food every day with bales tho for alot of smaller systems
M-J-G
Member
Why would you want to put so much pit at once, surely the more you put out at once the more you have to push/shove up to them later.
sticky
Member
- Location
- Near Stratford upon Avon
I was quoted £135/ton delivered to their yard two days ago!
- Location
- East Sussex
Seeing as you mention it: I’m looking for one (second hand preferably) what would you recomend? 1.4cube is a hell of a grab and we dump blocks over a wall into an IAE box feeder for one group, only 1.92m wide though as we have to load it end on so the cows can get round it.
Geniunie question, not a challenge
- Location
- East Sussex
It’s all about time isn’t it? So much talk on here about using time wisely and getting off farm jobs/diversifying especially with suckers that I thought it was a relevant point.
I have found that if I lay blocks out to a feed barrier it doesn’t keep a group happy for long. Bales on the other hand (and I do appreciate their disadvantages) will keep them happy for longer between push up/tidy up. Better access required for blocks too as I prefer not to break them up when dropping, rather slide off the tines and leave whole.
Local contractor takes £4.30 a bale for his Lely baler/wrapper. At £2.50 for plastic, that's £6.80 a bale. Two or three cuts an acre per year, average 6 bales to the acre = £40.80 an acre.
Mowing, tedding, raking costs the same clamping or baling.
Self propelled crew has 3 tractors carting (minimum) and buckrake clearing 10 acres an hour. Local man takes £28 an acre for the chopper, then £30 an hour for tractor and trailer, and £50 an hour for the buckrake. That's £9 an acre to cart, and £5 pushing it up, total £42 an acre.
So 6 bales an acre paying contractors the cut off point where bales cheaper? Well no, you've still got to haul all the bales and stack them. Stacking 24 bales an hour is easily achievable (for easy counting), at £40 an hour is another £10 an acre.
Plastic disposal costs here are £10 for a bin with roughly 120 bales worth of plastic, so 50p per acre (solway recycling bins, you cab easily get more in, but easy counting again).
So clamping £42 an acre, baling 6 bale to the acre £51.30 from rowed up to plastic disposed.
However, add in diesel consumption between the two systems, and there's not so much in it cost wise.
Baling has, unlike a clamp, zero waste. Add the cost of the extra grass you have to feed cattle that you don't need to put into a midden, and it's pretty much the same cost per acre, just that baling is slower.
A contractor with a forage wagon is cheaper than either contractors baling it or self propelled.
I have my own baler, wrapper, and cart them in myself. I'd cry giving a contractor so much money each year to lift my 100 acres. I don't have a pit, I'd weep at the cost of putting one in, and I feed out with the straw blower. Can't get any lower costs than that for my hill farm.
Mowing, tedding, raking costs the same clamping or baling.
Self propelled crew has 3 tractors carting (minimum) and buckrake clearing 10 acres an hour. Local man takes £28 an acre for the chopper, then £30 an hour for tractor and trailer, and £50 an hour for the buckrake. That's £9 an acre to cart, and £5 pushing it up, total £42 an acre.
So 6 bales an acre paying contractors the cut off point where bales cheaper? Well no, you've still got to haul all the bales and stack them. Stacking 24 bales an hour is easily achievable (for easy counting), at £40 an hour is another £10 an acre.
Plastic disposal costs here are £10 for a bin with roughly 120 bales worth of plastic, so 50p per acre (solway recycling bins, you cab easily get more in, but easy counting again).
So clamping £42 an acre, baling 6 bale to the acre £51.30 from rowed up to plastic disposed.
However, add in diesel consumption between the two systems, and there's not so much in it cost wise.
Baling has, unlike a clamp, zero waste. Add the cost of the extra grass you have to feed cattle that you don't need to put into a midden, and it's pretty much the same cost per acre, just that baling is slower.
A contractor with a forage wagon is cheaper than either contractors baling it or self propelled.
I have my own baler, wrapper, and cart them in myself. I'd cry giving a contractor so much money each year to lift my 100 acres. I don't have a pit, I'd weep at the cost of putting one in, and I feed out with the straw blower. Can't get any lower costs than that for my hill farm.
As kill says football team needed for clamp.
Bales you can haul them yourself behind a baler wrapper combi thingy.
A 120hp loader with a decent flat trailer could be lower cost than 4 200hp drawn trailers if you have the time.
Does no one dispute the £3/t figure for clamp capital cost?
Add in £1/t maintenance ?
Bales you can haul them yourself behind a baler wrapper combi thingy.
A 120hp loader with a decent flat trailer could be lower cost than 4 200hp drawn trailers if you have the time.
Does no one dispute the £3/t figure for clamp capital cost?
Add in £1/t maintenance ?