Silage 2020

[Milkcow365]

Whats people's silage like? 1st to 3rd here is good, but 4th would win competitions. Never made such shite in my life. Self feed and shite don't mix.

Pretty average year for silage fed all my first already , so let’s hope the maize is decent if we get it off

 

[Beef farmer]

Pretty average year for silage fed all my first already , so let’s hope the maize is decent if we get it off

Dry week. Be grand

 

[Serup]

Whats people's silage like? 1st to 3rd here is good, but 4th would win competitions. Never made such shite in my life. Self feed and shite don't mix.

My best year so far. Both on yield, quality and consistency. Took 1st cut may 17th and then every 25-28 days till august when we took 4th cut. They are almost identical in quality and just like i want them. Then we took 5th cut october 14th after two month. That cut is for heifers and gave a lot of tons. And we reached 30% dm which i didn’t think we could with so heavy a crop so late.
my grass has outyielded my maize this year, which i don’t think will happen again. It has had a lot of slurry though.

 

[buffalo_soldier]

1st, good.
2nd, distinctly below average. Not only was it drought grown stalks, I also managed to mow and wagon it in heavy rain showers.
3rd is still a mystery. Hell of a good crop when clamped though.
4th, was split between bales at 28 days for drought insurance next year and bales at 40something days as dry cow feed. Both still unknown.
Whole crop, higher dm than usual due to rain for a month when fit. Usual analysis though. Yield average.

 

[The Agrarian]

2nd feeding very well here at the moment, and smells gorgeous (in contrast to last year's stemmy second, which we came straight off).

1st was cut in ideal shape and maturity, expected to be very good.

Third was huge volume, disappointing 7 week interval due to poor summer weather. Cut in good decent conditions, but was the wrong colour (not green enough). So expected to be below par.

Didn't sow fert on 4th this year due to pit space, but have 20 acres of ropey, un-milled, undersown barley wholecrop. Probably end up mostly with dry cows.

 

[pappuller]

Whats people's silage like? 1st to 3rd here is good, but 4th would win competitions. Never made such shite in my life. Self feed and shite don't mix. [emoji849]

2nd cut is the big letdown here, pity there's so much of it, I have some 5th cut bales which are moulding nicely into Ford badges [emoji23]

 

[som farmer]

We cut 4th cut, on a new ley, 10 oct, grass is 6ins again, and to wet to haul the bales !

 

[Serup]

2nd cut is the big letdown here, pity there's so much of it, I have some 5th cut bales which are moulding nicely into Ford badges [emoji23]

Thats why i have a strategy of max 28 days between cuts. If the wheather is uncooperative, we go sooner rather than later. Fastest i've done was 17 days. Yield varies a lot, but quality is consistent.
Grass is too expensive for me to make it for heifers.

 

[Beef farmer]

We cut 4th cut, on a new ley, 10 oct, grass is 6ins again, and to wet to haul the bales !

The bales still out there?

 

[Beef farmer]

Thats why i have a strategy of max 28 days between cuts. If the wheather is uncooperative, we go sooner rather than later. Fastest i've done was 17 days. Yield varies a lot, but quality is consistent.
Grass is too expensive for me to make it for heifers.

Wagon?

 

[ploughman1963]

Thats why i have a strategy of max 28 days between cuts. If the wheather is uncooperative, we go sooner rather than later. Fastest i've done was 17 days. Yield varies a lot, but quality is consistent.
Grass is too expensive for me to make it for heifers.

Same here - 160 ac of 6th cut later this week if the forecast can be believed

 

[Serup]

Wagon?

No i pay a contractor every time. And it's on an hourly rate, so it cost almost the same, no matter the yield, as they can't go any faster.

Same here - 160 ac of 6th cut later this week if the forecast can be believed

We are done for this year. No meaningful travel this late.

 

[som farmer]

The bales still out there?

yep, try a tractor on it, with a bale on, 6in ruts, baled it just before the rain, give it dry for a few days, it will be ok. That's the problem with our local soil, it's dry, dry, but get a few days of heavy rain, it turns to sop, couple of dry days, it will be fine, it's a question of deep ruts, or some 'bare' patches, we prefer the bare patches, the lesser of two evils.

 

[Conrod96]

We’ve 3 great quality cuts in the pit this year and decent 4th.
Along with with a nice pit of wholecrop oats if we could manage every year with the quality of the cuts we had this year we’d be very happy!

 

[cowboysupper]

Thats why i have a strategy of max 28 days between cuts. If the wheather is uncooperative, we go sooner rather than later. Fastest i've done was 17 days. Yield varies a lot, but quality is consistent.
Grass is too expensive for me to make it for heifers.

How do you manage the nitrate level in the grass going earlier than the target date?

 

[ploughman1963]

Perhaps, like us, he is organic?

 

[cowboysupper]

Perhaps, like us, he is organic?

He mentioned about applying lots of slurry this year earlier in the thread I think.

 

[Sid]

We cut 4th cut, on a new ley, 10 oct, grass is 6ins again, and to wet to haul the bales !

Got to love a fusion!

 

[Serup]

How do you manage the nitrate level in the grass going earlier than the target date?

They are always low in tests. We have quota on N, so “lots’n’lots” in my book, is still not too much, it’s just more than other crops.

I’m not organic, but grass only gets slurry.
I think 50% more would yield better results.

 

[som farmer]

Got to love a fusion!

local contractor, has gone from a high density belt baler, after extolling their virtues, for years, saying how much you can get into a bale, to a roller one, bales averaging 20% less weight, funny how the baling price, per bale, has stayed the same.