Costs to grow grass for silage?

[buttercup]

Been quoted £22 k for a new yellow round baler, which over 5 years is the same price as the contractor, but with out the diesel, but the stress of getting some one in ....

 

[neilo]

Been quoted £22 k for a new yellow round baler, which over 5 years is the same price as the contractor, but with out the diesel, but the stress of getting some one in ....

....and the net?

 

[nails]

Keeps dry cows going

I just dont get why any one would bother to make and keep selling silage that cheap. No way is there any profit in it so one year yes but you would think twice the second year.

 

[nails]

What is the general thinking which is cheaper big squares or 4 ft rounds. Been using a round baler but thinking of changing ...

Rounds if you want to keep things simple . A baler like a McHale with chopper will get far more in a bale than squares.

 

[Chae1]

I just dont get why any one would bother to make and keep selling silage that cheap. No way is there any profit in it so one year yes but you would think twice the second year.

I guess it's to tidy up grass. Given up buying expensive store cattle that lose money. Sell silage and straw feed barley. Got mower, tedder, baler, wrapper in shed.

 

[Lewis]

With our pits almost full and 3rd cut looming , looks like we'll be doing it all bales.
Costs last year was just shy of £7 including wrap(6layers)for a fusion bale.
What would a 6ft square cost approx in comparison ?
Does a particular shape utilise the wrap better?
And which would have the most packed in..

As you can see never used squares as silage so just thinking aloud.

 

[jamesy]

Including apportioning a cost per acre/year for reseeding I reckon bale silage is around £20/bale to make all in.

 

[davidroberts30]

Including apportioning a cost per acre/year for reseeding I reckon bale silage is around £20/bale to make all in.

i made some bales for horsey neighbours while doing a bit here and charged then 16

 

[glasshouse]

Away to put silage fert on today @£287/t focuses the mind. Grass seed over £70/acre.

Anything different anyone else doing?

Have applied digestate to some fields. They will just get cheaper straight N.

Been buying bales of silage for £8.50 a bale. Makes you wonder if worth making your own.

Would u guys in abertightshire stop buggering the forage market?
You dragged the straw price down last year and are trying the same now with silage?

 

[glasshouse]

Rounds if you want to keep things simple . A baler like a McHale with chopper will get far more in a bale than squares.

No it wont

 

[neilo]

With our pits almost full and 3rd cut looming , looks like we'll be doing it all bales.
Costs last year was just shy of £7 including wrap(6layers)for a fusion bale.
What would a 6ft square cost approx in comparison ?
Does a particular shape utilise the wrap better?
And which would have the most packed in..

As you can see never used squares as silage so just thinking aloud.

£7 would have been cheap last year, local man here was £7.75 two years ago.

Much like straw, if you can handle squares then you will get more in a bale, clear the field faster, stack in a smaller space, get less rodent damage/better fermentation, and get more on a lorry if you sell them.

 

[Farmer_Joe]

No it wont

Agreed that’s rubbish,

I get a krone big bailer think there 1.2 by about 85 deep (the deeper ones) I Rekon there’s nearly 2 round in each bale when feed them out seeing how long they last also weight. For me it’s a no brainier loads less bales loads less wrap why would you bother with rounds?

 

[egbert]

If margins are tight, is it sense to keep on reseeding/chucking out N?

I hardly ever reseed anything, and the best pastures I've got are decades old.
Most is grazed most of the year, with sheep/beef, and a few equines.
Laid up for a month or two to get a crop off.
We're using some compound fert, but i can see the day when that'll go.

 

[7610 super q]

£7 would have been cheap last year, local man here was £7.75 two years ago.

Much like straw, if you can handle squares then you will get more in a bale, clear the field faster, stack in a smaller space, get less rodent damage/better fermentation, and get more on a lorry if you sell them.

Less rodent damage with square straw bales ? Don't they nibble strings ? Have had terrible trouble with rounds in the past.

 

[neilo]

Less rodent damage with square straw bales ? Don't they nibble strings ? Have had terrible trouble with rounds in the past.

We certainly get fewer problems with quadrants of straw than we do with round bales, so long as half the grain isn’t still in the bale of course.

I was more referring to square silage bales getting less rodent damage. If there’s a small hole in a square bale, tightly bales and stacked with no gaps, then only a small patch is spoilt. The bales inside the stack are protected by those around it, whereas however we stack rounds, we create pathways through the stack.

 

[Dog Bowl]

Agreed that’s rubbish,

I get a krone big bailer think there 1.2 by about 85 deep (the deeper ones) I Rekon there’s nearly 2 round in each bale when feed them out seeing how long they last also weight. For me it’s a no brainier loads less bales loads less wrap why would you bother with rounds?

Agreed. I just did some 40% DM silage in 120x70 5ft squares out a Krone big pack. These bales averaged 850kgs a piece. Banged up nice and tight by a decent operator

 

[Sid]

£7 would have been cheap last year, local man here was £7.75 two years ago.

Much like straw, if you can handle squares then you will get more in a bale, clear the field faster, stack in a smaller space, get less rodent damage/better fermentation, and get more on a lorry if you sell them.

I've managed to get a lorry and drag up to, and of course not over, weight with rounds.

 

[nails]

Agreed that’s rubbish,

I get a krone big bailer think there 1.2 by about 85 deep (the deeper ones) I Rekon there’s nearly 2 round in each bale when feed them out seeing how long they last also weight. For me it’s a no brainier loads less bales loads less wrap why would you bother with rounds?

Cos a round baler is a lot cheaper lighter and less power hungry than a big square baler. Depends on your circumstances i think .You can go out with a little old tractor and round baler and make silage just as well as dragging tons of iron rot behind some huge tractor.

 

[nails]

No it wont

Depends on the size of bale .

 

[Farmer_Joe]

Cos a round baler is a lot cheaper lighter and less power hungry than a big square baler. Depends on your circumstances i think .You can go out with a little old tractor and round baler and make silage just as well as dragging tons of iron rot behind some huge tractor.

Yea I understand that, I’m talking paying contractors. If guy I use ever gives in I will buy a round but while I can get him it’s pointless