Round bales or silage pit?

[Paul R]

Whats the trend heading for in 2020?

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Makes no odds . If you have a pit then use it . Not a lot in it price wise

 

[Shughie McFee]

stack round bales in the silage pit.

 

[Sid]

Round bales mean less ensiling losses.....but more plastic.
Clamp means more capital outlay but cheaper harvesting costs....unless it's a lighter crop....

Roundabouts and swings.

 

[clem dog]

Round bales mean less emailing losses.....but more plastic.
Clamp means more capital outlay but cheaper harvesting costs....unless it's a lighter crop....

Roundabouts and swings.

Yes those emails are seriously bad at loosing things!

 

[M-J-G]

If you have a pit or a concrete area where you can catch effluent then I wouldn't even consider baling it .

If not, concrete is quite expensive and with the way livestock farming is looking right now I'm not sure if investing tens of thousands in a pit is a wise move.

 

[RhysT]

We costed our round bales this year at approx £20 each including paying our labour for making it and I think I allowed £100 an acre for rent. Made approx 1400.

 

[kiwi pom]

I'd say the trend would be towards whatever was considered more environmentally friendly?
Anything that requires single use plastic will be frowned upon, even though it might actually make sense.
I suppose a lot will depend on how many animals we're talking about?

When it comes to bales what uses the least plastic, rounds or big squares?
Tube wrapped use less but there's a storage issue.
Hay?

 

[Chae1]

We costed our round bales this year at approx £20 each including paying our labour for making it and I think I allowed £100 an acre for rent. Made approx 1400.

Glad you can buy bales of silage for under £15/bale then.

 

[Jim75]

Ag bag as an alternative half way house?

 

[Bobthebuilder]

Can’t see anyone changing their system just because it’s trendy [emoji57] 1 of our farms suits clamp and the other suits bales so as long as we keep doing silage I can’t see that changing anytime soon

 

[RhysT]

Glad you can buy bales of silage for under £15/bale then.

Jobs mental. We make to use ourselves and we deal in hay, haylage and straw!

 

[shearerlad]

Round bales mean less ensiling losses.....but more plastic.
Clamp means more capital outlay but cheaper harvesting costs....unless it's a lighter crop....

Roundabouts and swings.

Not necessarily sure about that statement.
So far this winter, I’ve had more waste from bales than the pit, and the pit stuff has 5-7% higher secondary fermentation than usual

 

[egbert]

Round bales mean less ensiling losses.....but more plastic.
Clamp means more capital outlay but cheaper harvesting costs....unless it's a lighter crop....

Roundabouts and swings.

How many forager teams can access 7'10" bridges? I've got 2 of the soddin things in my life.

I would also say, in favour of bales, is the simplicity of feeding them.
Twin spikes on the loader to fetch out 1s or 2s, and plonk bales in round feeders....jobs a good'un.
I don't know that I'd want to be carting a sheargrab about the hill to fill feeders.

I suppose it's easier to fork clamped along a barrier feeder
(I once heard about some miraculous machine that churned it all up, and dribbled it along the barrier...but I've never seen one, and anyway, I'd rather be talking to my beasts than listening to the radio)

 

[Danllan]

We costed our round bales this year at approx £20 each including paying our labour for making it and I think I allowed £100 an acre for rent. Made approx 1400.

That's high for making your own, is the rent worth it? How much fert' were you putting on and how many bales p.a. did you get for each cut?

 

[Mouser]

How many forager teams can access 7'10" bridges? I've got 2 of the soddin things in my life.

I would also say, in favour of bales, is the simplicity of feeding them.
Twin spikes on the loader to fetch out 1s or 2s, and plonk bales in round feeders....jobs a good'un.
I don't know that I'd want to be carting a sheargrab about the hill to fill feeders.

I suppose it's easier to fork clamped along a barrier feeder
(I once heard about some miraculous machine that churned it all up, and dribbled it along the barrier...but I've never seen one, and anyway, I'd rather be talking to my beasts than listening to the radio)

Dont know any Baler men that would be under 7'10 either!

 

[Derrick Hughes]

That's high for making your own, is the rent worth it? How much fert' were you putting on and how many bales p.a. did you get for each cut?

Mine cost £18.50 no rent
Fertilizers over £6 bales . Soon mounts up

 

[P.O.T]

Tin hat on...
But if you got 10 acres of silage. All mowing, raking redding etc the same for each system. 5tons silage an acre
Forage wagon(let's not get into one of those threads) 3 hours to lift maybe. So 3 hours tractor and buckrake. So 330 for wagon, 100 for buckraking. Total 430
Bales @700kg is 71 bales at £6 each to bale and wrap is 426.
The extra is the hauling the bales in. So I'm sure people are faster than me but 71 bales is going to be 3 hours at least. So another 100 quid.
Feel free to pick apart. Haha I'm sure I've missed something
Pits are faster, it's how you look at your own labour and cost it.

 

[kill]

Ag bag as an alternative half way house?

For a moment i had a thought about Ag bagging but if you clamp silage you feed a mixture of silage all winter and if you bale you can feed different bales from different cuts so also mixing it up but Ag bagging you can only feed that one field of grass at a time so no mixing of cuts to give a good balanced profile of silage.

Also Ag bagging you pay twice for silage making as once to forage and again to bag so rather expensive.

 

[glasshouse]

Glad you can buy bales of silage for under £15/bale then.

send me a load
crows have fuked halfof mine