round bale silage for dairy cows?

[organic antares]

Weighing up options at the moment, we have always fed clamp silage through a mixer wagon, but clamp is getting past its best, wagon starting to show its age, and the biggest problem is only a short tenancy at the moment. Don't really want to get into big investment in infrastructure if we can help it. Any thoughts on pro's and con's of bales against clamp. tia

 

[Ballygreenan]

@Tullyvernon

 

[multi power]

Better silage so more milk, less waste, far more flexible, can keep separate any field of poorer grass for dry stock etc
Only downside is wrap getting expensive

 

[Blue.]

Weighing up options at the moment, we have always fed clamp silage through a mixer wagon, but clamp is getting past its best, wagon starting to show its age, and the biggest problem is only a short tenancy at the moment. Don't really want to get into big investment in infrastructure if we can help it. Any thoughts on pro's and con's of bales against clamp. tia

Ag bag?

Concrete pad,with bales for walls.

All depends how many tonnes you need and how short your tenancy is.

 

[multi power]

Ag bag?

Concrete pad,with bales for walls.

All depends how many tonnes you need and how short your tenancy is.

Best silage i ever made had no walls, in fact no concrete at all, was a bit messy in winter mind

 

[alan6430]

We do a lot of bales and some clamp. We can come off clamp silage onto very average bale silage and see the milk go up 1.5litres.

Last summer we was buffer feeding rocket fuel bales and were averaging 29litres a day. Our best ever!!

I presume it's because the bales are not chopped and it stays in the rumen for longer and they can get the best out of it?

 

[Clay52]

We do a lot of bales and some clamp. We can come off clamp silage onto very average bale silage and see the milk go up 1.5litres.

Last summer we was buffer feeding rocket fuel bales and were averaging 29litres a day. Our best ever!!

I presume it's because the bales are not chopped and it stays in the rumen for longer and they can get the best out of it?

It's because the feed is higher quality.

Longer retention time would lower intake and lower production.

 

[Tarw Coch]

Advantage of bales is you can cut each field individually when ready instead of waiting for some to bulk up.....in fact you only pay for what you do unlike clamp where you pay per acre. Can also spread wether risk , if yorexsilaging over a longer period although that can work both ways and will probably increase your workload.

Biggest downside could we'll be winter workload, how many bales a day would you be using?

 

[Stinker]

What is your yield? Bales are not much fun in tmr so you will need to get concentrates into cows by some other method. Tanco bale sheer will make feeding out a 5 minute job

 

[DocPhil001]

We are moving to bales this year on both farms. Going to be busy but should cut down on hired in help. The better fields are always a couple of weeks earlier but get left to save doing lots of small bits with the forager. Advantage we have though is the kit is already in the shed so dont have to wait for a contractor to come in.

 

[multi power]

Advantage of bales is you can cut each field individually when ready instead of waiting for some to bulk up.....in fact you only pay for what you do unlike clamp where you pay per acre. Can also spread wether risk , if yorexsilaging over a longer period although that can work both ways and will probably increase your workload.

Biggest downside could we'll be winter workload, how many bales a day would you be using?

I found the winter workload reduced when we went to bales, one bale per ring feeder, once a day instead of two grabs twice a day

 

[milkloss]

Can you get as much silage in a clamp using bales? I haven't done the maths but getting bales from the corner of a sodden field in winter wouldn't inspire me much.

 

[Bogeyman]

Told by silage additive expert that best bales are made set up on their ends not stacked on their sides, so that would increase area required for storage big time.

 

[pappuller]

Told by silage additive expert that best bales are made set up on their ends not stacked on their sides, so that would increase area required for storage big time.

Not necessarily, if you stack em flat in a pyramid or tin can on end you'll get more tin on end in the same area aslong as its dry stuff, you dont really want to be stackin tin cans above 3 high

 

[multi power]

Told by silage additive expert that best bales are made set up on their ends not stacked on their sides, so that would increase area required for storage big time.

Definitely should be set on ends for best results, but i don't think they take up any more space that way

 

[Happy hillbily]

I stacked my bales on end using a normal mchale bale squeeze took no more room than laying them the old fashoned way.
One other thing to consider before changing to bales over clamp silage, will your slurry system cope with bale silage ? I had 120 bales last year that i normaly dont have, decided to use them first before opening the clamp, I had to scrape the parts in front of the feeders separately so not to put the bits of bale in the pit.

 

[DocPhil001]

I stacked my bales on end using a normal mchale bale squeeze took no more room than laying them the old fashoned way.
One other thing to consider before changing to bales over clamp silage, will your slurry system cope with bale silage ? I had 120 bales last year that i normaly dont have, decided to use them first before opening the clamp, I had to scrape the parts in front of the feeders separately so not to put the bits of bale in the pit.

feed passage has auto scrapes so fork out silage from the grids every day anyway.

 

[robin banks]

I moved from pit to all bales last year. And I used to hate bales with a passion. But mostly from the point of the time taken up moving wrapped bales from field to stack.
Got contractor now who moves all bales unwrapped to the stack then they are wrapped and stacked with loader mounted wrapper. Way faster moving green bales and no damage to wrapped bales.
Winter feeding I think is as fast as pit. But if I had a Bale shear it would be faster. I don't diet feed just put along feed passage.
I go for lightish cuts 4 times a year. So the most bales I got was 7 to the acre but some was down to 3.5 in last cuts. So works out cheap per acre.

 

[organic antares]

A bit more detail, tenancy is year to year, 75 cows, biggest problem with feeding is shed really isnt ideal for feeding bales, always used mixer wagon and put feed in narrow mangers against wall.

 

[cows sh#t me to tears]

What type and size is the mixer?