Whole Crop Silage

[Dinger64]

Anyone ever try round baling wheat or Oats for whole crop Silage?

 

[HarryB97]

Don't! You will loose lots of the grain by the time it's gone through the mower, rake & baler and then the rats will destroy the lot

 

[KB6930]

Yes not done much tho the odd 20 acre here and there . It goes like glue on the baler rollers but is very good feed . IF you can keep the vermin out !!!

 

[Al R]

Do it pre cheesy stage and as arable silage, don’t go for wholecrop when baling. Sold 10 bales to a dairy neighbour once, he put the 10 bales in the middle of a stack of 1100 grass bales and when he got to the 10 there was just a hole where they’d been. Badgers had had the lot.

 

[mtx135]

For my sins 20 odd acres a year. It’s a job to rake and sticky as hell and the rats love it. On a plus it’s good feed and all those empty silage wrap tubes you can fill with rat bait between the bales as you stack. I do mine at milky ripe and seem to get less losses and vermin now.

 

[Devonian]

Wouldn't bother. We tried it years ago. There was hardly a bale in the stack that the vermin hadn't ripped open. Was like mouldy dung as a result. Similar experience when we tried chopping and AG bagging it. Never again!!

Chop it a put it in your clamp with a covering of grass silage on it.

 

[neilo]

‘Cheesy ripe’ cereals are no better feed value than moderate grass silage, but with an additional vermin attractant. The value of ‘whole crop’ silage is the high starch level. In order to get that the grain has to be near ripe, and in order for that to be digested (by cattle anyway) that grain needs to be cracked. That’s just not possible with bales.

 

[Fendt65]

Thought I’d jump on the band wagon RATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Sid]

‘Cheesy ripe’ cereals are no better feed value than moderate grass silage, but with an additional vermin attractant. The value of ‘whole crop’ silage is the high starch level. In order to get that the grain has to be near ripe, and in order for that to be digested (by cattle anyway) that grain needs to be cracked. That’s just not possible with bales.

Wholecropping underway down this way now on barley.

Some I walked monday would have needed the mill wound in.

 

[deleted user 837354]

As above, unless he stuff has grain in it worth having it's not ready to harvest.

The main issue is vermin. Don't try to ag-bag it whatever you do.

 

[Top Tip.]

We have been wholecroping for the last 20 years. Bales,agbag and pit, the pit is definitely best. We seal the pit with draff and find we have very little problem with vermin. We feed it to cows after calving and it always performs better than the analysis would suggest,in fact we have to gradually move the cows onto it as it will scour the calves with the increase in milk production.Bales and agbag are fine IF you can keep the rats out.