Baleage for the Weaning Pen ?

[cfpinz]

Dry bales average about 1,700 lbs, silage bales all over the map depending on moisture. 2000 lbs is common. But some of my silage bales are actually about 2 percentage points off of being hay. Some will about lift the back tractor wheels off the ground when you pick them up with the loader.

Thanks. I've yet to weigh a wet bale, but the 5x4's will make the front end of a tractor stand up if it doesn't have a loader on it when using the wrapper. I've got one of those old 3pt deals similar to an Ag Wrap, right smart of a pain sometimes.

 

[gcreekrch]

Not to debate silage, haylage or dry hay all I know is anytime you put iron and oil between the sun and the ground it is going to cost money.
I realize it's off subject but for myself I prefer more cattle in less space moved more often over a longer period of time.

Some places have other areas to save costs. I know the difference between diesel and plastic far outweighs the non benefits of black and moldy hay or cows standing on grass with 2 feet of crusted snow covering it up. We don't have a 4 to 6 month window to make 2 to 4 crops of hay. We have a 4 week window to make good feed and another 5 weeks to make turd pushing material. Rather a little plastic than paying a trucker to burn diesel and haul feed in.

 

[gcreekrch]

I used your number of 1/15.

Another interesting anomaly with feeding baleage I have found is that a baleage bale feeds almost as many cows as a dry feed bale. I know that goes against conventional wisdom but that's been our experience over the years.

Our bales are roughly 1700 lbs. Without any supplements, it takes 35 lbs a day of our feed to maintain a cow to calving, more after. If we use the pie are round formula this would tell me we have roughly 1200 lbs dry matter in a silage bale. We calculate 35 cows to a silage bale and 48 to a hay bale without making the cows tell us we are underfeeding them.
In -40 and colder weather we have had our little cows clean up 45 lbs of hay.
The last years we have been supplementing with 5 to 8 lbs of screenings pellets. Finding the pulse crop screenings from one mill are worth paying a premium for as 5 lbs of them on warmer days will take the place of 8 lbs of hay at a similar cost per lb.