Feeding baleage questions

[Gateboy]

We're in a pretty good drought in my area. First hay cutting was OK, but we've had very little rain since then. There's not going to be a second cutting, pastures are fading, some folks are already starting to feed. I usually put up about 400 4x5's, and that gets me thru winter, but with no second cut I'm about 150 bales short.

A friend has 400 ac of corn that's chest high. He's cutting it, baling it with a silage baler, and wrapping it. Making about 4 4x5 bales to the ac, which weigh about 1500# (!) each. I'm going to get some of it to supplement my hay.

Any tips for feeding this stuff? It's hilly enough around here that I normally roll round bales down the hill, and the cows eat it off the ground. Can you do the baleage the same way, or does it need some type of feeder to keep it off the ground. My herd is split into groups of about 20 cows, and they normally clean up a hay bale in a couple of days. If they can't clean up a bale of the baleage in a couple of days, does it go to waste? Any tips are appreciated.

 

[dun]

The beef people around here that feed baleage usually just use a regular round bale feeder. Part of the reason the baleage is so heavy is the several hundred pounds of water/moisture in them. As to going bad I don;t know but the dairys open the silage pits and feed from it and it frequently takes a week or more to clean up a pit so I would guess the stuff should keep.

 

[Son of Butch]

Around here baleage is hay, usually alfalfa, baled wet with preservative applied and then plastic wrapped or tubed..
I've never seen corn cut and baled for baleage. We either just chop it and bag it or pile it, pack it, cover and feed as
corn silage. Or bale dry corn stalks for bedding/feed.
I would think you would have a good bit more waste at the feeder baling it wet and wrapping it, rather than bagging as corn silage.

 

[Gateboy]

This stuff is cut with a disc mower, let lay a couple of hours, then raked, baled, & wrapped. Moisture is supposedly in the 60% range. Whole stalks, with ears about 6" long with tiny kernels on them.

I'm not totally sold on the idea. Maybe I should spend this money drilling some oats or wheat into the pastures, instead of buying baled corn.

Or maybe I should sell down to what hay/pasture I've got on hand.

 

[dun]

Rather then feed it as is, I would try to figure a way to chop it as I fed it. Kind of like they do with TMR

 

[Son of Butch]

This stuff is cut with a disc mower, let lay a couple of hours, then raked, baled, & wrapped. Moisture is supposedly in the 60% range. Whole stalks, with ears about 6" long with tiny kernels on them.

I'm not totally sold on the idea.

I agree. I can understand if you were trying to salvage your own corn crop. But buying someone else's problem...?

I would be careful about over paying, for an extra 45-50% water, on an untried product when you don't know how well your
cows will accept eating wet whole stalks. Just seems to me you could end up with a lot of waste and I would stick with buying
a tried and true product like hay.

 

[TexasBred]

This stuff is cut with a disc mower, let lay a couple of hours, then raked, baled, & wrapped. Moisture is supposedly in the 60% range. Whole stalks, with ears about 6" long with tiny kernels on them.

I'm not totally sold on the idea. Maybe I should spend this money drilling some oats or wheat into the pastures, instead of buying baled corn.

Or maybe I should sell down to what hay/pasture I've got on hand.

I've seen a lot of coastal bermuda put up like that but never standing corn. Probably going to have a lot of waste.

 

[pricefarm]

Why are they rolling it? Looks like they would chop it for silage.

 

[Gateboy]

Probably because it was easier to source the silage baler and wrapper than a silage cutter, wagons, and silo. There's not a lot of silage put up around here anymore, most of the dairies went out of business years ago.

I'm just wondering if there will be a lot of waste feeding it on the ground, or if the cows will even eat the whole stalks. I would probably be better sticking to something I know works.

 

[Angus Cowman]

It will be dam good feed you should be able to unroll it like you do the grass hay
It dam sure wont last 2 days cause your cows will love it and it will be alot higher in protein and TDN Than your grass hay

The will clean up the stalk and all because with ensiling process it will soften and break down the stalks he77 cows will clean up regular stalk bales as hard as they are

Only thing is the corn needs to be checked for high nitrates or cause if it is stressed from drought and been fertilized it coukd be a problem most extension offices can test it just take a few stalks in for them to test prefferably asap after it is cut

 

[Angus Cowman]

No more hay than you are feeding I probly wouldnt feed more than 1 bale of sileage a week unless your cows are losing condition
Also takes atleast 6 weeks for it to ensile i would wait probly 2 months after it is wrapped to feed any

Main thing is to get it wrapped asap after baling and not have any holes in it while it is ensiling

 

[nkotb]

It will be dam good feed you should be able to unroll it like you do the grass hay
It dam sure wont last 2 days cause your cows will love it and it will be alot higher in protein and TDN Than your grass hay

The will clean up the stalk and all because with ensiling process it will soften and break down the stalks he77 cows will clean up regular stalk bales as hard as they are

Only thing is the corn needs to be checked for high nitrates or cause if it is stressed from drought and been fertilized it coukd be a problem most extension offices can test it just take a few stalks in for them to test prefferably asap after it is cut

The nitrate test is a good idea, however, I'm not sure I would do it right after it is cut. I'm not sure how it would work with baleage, but with true silage, the ensiling process will reduce nitrates by roughly half. The trick with a nitrate test is to accurately sample enough bales to get a good sample, keeping in mind that cattle are going to eat the leaves and ears first, which are going to be the lowest nitrate parts of the plant. The stalk will be the highest nitrate concentration in the plant, however they may only eat the upper part, which contains less nitrate, or consume very little of the stalk at all. I would ensile, then before I set any out get a hay probe and sample some of the bales and send it in.

 

[Gateboy]

We've had some tested, dry matter basis:

Crude protein 10.52
Nitrate Ion 0.02
Acid detergent fiber 28.77

No detectable alfatoxin

 

[foragemanager]

North Dakota State U. did a study on rolling bales out, processing them or feeding through a cone style feeder. Research said,"Reduced wintering costs by 21% for a 100 cow reference herd. 20% would be 80 bales saved and may last you through the winter. Our feeders last 10+ years if you want to make a winter feeding change for the long term. [email protected]

 

[Angus Cowman]

Looks like your tests are good
Will make good feed

As for Nitrates dropping as it ensiles that is true but with it not being chopped it will not drop as much as regular sileage does

 

[TexasBred]

North Dakota State U. did a study on rolling bales out, processing them or feeding through a cone style feeder. Research said,"Reduced wintering costs by 21% for a 100 cow reference herd. 20% would be 80 bales saved and may last you through the winter. Our feeders last 10+ years if you want to make a winter feeding change for the long term. [email protected]

We're not buying or selling feeders here although it seems you are. Just trying to help a friend figure out what's the best way to handle this corn he has.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

North Dakota State U. did a study on rolling bales out, processing them or feeding through a cone style feeder. Research said,"Reduced wintering costs by 21% for a 100 cow reference herd. 20% would be 80 bales saved and may last you through the winter. Our feeders last 10+ years if you want to make a winter feeding change for the long term. [email protected]

We're not buying or selling feeders here although it seems you are. Just trying to help a friend figure out what's the best way to handle this corn he has.

:cry2: but I wanna buy a new hay feeder Pa!

 

[Angus Cowman]

Penguins don't need hay feeders

 

[Gateboy]

Well, the decision is made. Yesterday I bought enough hay to get thru winter. It's nice stuff, wrapped 5x4 fescue/coastal mix, and very clean. Only negative is a long haul, but you've got to get out of the dry area to buy any hay at all. I will probably get a few bales of the baleage just to try it out and see how it does.

Thanks to all for the advice.

 

[Sd1030]

Gate what part of nc are you in? Im in the peidmont region and ive actually sold some hay back in the statesville area. Where did you end up having to get yours from? Not trying to be nosy just curious as to how far you had to go. I know the guy from stateville said hes having to haul water bc the creeks are drying up, sounds like yall boys got it bad.