hay and ddgs in silo

[novaman]

What's the name of the binder they're using Nova? Some can be quite expensive. Probalby one of the oldest products out is Novasil. I think they now have Novasil "Plus". Works as well as any I've seen and used at 15 lbs. per ton of TMR. I've never heard of an MTB that lowered SCC tho. If aflatoxin becoming more of a problem up north than it use to be? Certainly has been down this way for the last 8-10 years it seems.

The only thing I can find for a name is Myco Plus. I don't think it directly lowered the SCC. The added stress of the mycotoxins must have raised to SCC and by adding the binder it indirectly must have led to a lower SCC. Just a guess. I think the reason I was having so many problems, and most others in this region, was 2009 was a very cool, wet fall and the crop was full of mold spores going into the pile. I had many people tell me that it was the perfect weather for such an event and that it wasn't very common in this area for that to happen.

 

[mncowboy]

Guy in my area buys a bunch of modified distillers in the summer when he can get it cheapest. Grinds straw bales and mixes it with the modified and packs it in a pile like you would silage. He feeds it through the winter to his beef cows. He says they love the stuff.

How does he go about mixing it and what ration does he use?
Thanks

 

[novaman]

How does he go about mixing it and what ration does he use?
Thanks

To be honest I've never seen him do it and I never asked how he went about mixing it. I think he runs it through a mixer wagon. One guy loading the wagon, one guy unloading the wagon once it's mixed and one guy packing the discharged feed. I could be wrong though. I don't know the exact ration but I do know that he puts only enough straw in to keep the tractor from sinking in the pile. Come time to feed out he adds chopped grass hay to the straw/distillers. To me it seems like a lot of work just to save a few bucks on the distillers. I would rather pay a bit more and pick it up as I need it.

 

[TexasBred]

Got a lot of money tied up in a mixer wagon just to save a little on the DDG. Can you grind or mix "straw" in a horizontal wagon? i know it takes vertical to grind and mix grass hay and that's a $40,000 investment for a new one.

 

[iowafarmer]

Got a lot of money tied up in a mixer wagon just to save a little on the DDG. Can you grind or mix "straw" in a horizontal wagon? i know it takes vertical to grind and mix grass hay and that's a $40,000 investment for a new one.

If you already have a feeder wagon for feeding it makes sense. Yes horizontal ones can mix hay also, some do it better than others though. We have a Knight Reel Augie feeder wagon and it works pretty good.

 

[TexasBred]

Got a lot of money tied up in a mixer wagon just to save a little on the DDG. Can you grind or mix "straw" in a horizontal wagon? i know it takes vertical to grind and mix grass hay and that's a $40,000 investment for a new one.

If you already have a feeder wagon for feeding it makes sense. Yes horizontal ones can mix hay also, some do it better than others though. We have a Knight Reel Augie feeder wagon and it works pretty good.

I guess you can justify anything if you already have it. Along with a dedicated tractor. Will it grind a round bale or do you have to bust it up someway before you feed it into the wagon? All I could ever get grass hay to do in a horizontal was wrap around the auger so had to go vertical. That was 15 years ago so they've probably improved them by now. Just sounds like of additional work mixing ddg and straw and then putting that into a mixer wagon later on and mixing that mix with grass hay.

 

[iowafarmer]

Got a lot of money tied up in a mixer wagon just to save a little on the DDG. Can you grind or mix "straw" in a horizontal wagon? i know it takes vertical to grind and mix grass hay and that's a $40,000 investment for a new one.

If you already have a feeder wagon for feeding it makes sense. Yes horizontal ones can mix hay also, some do it better than others though. We have a Knight Reel Augie feeder wagon and it works pretty good.

I guess you can justify anything if you already have it. Along with a dedicated tractor. Will it grind a round bale or do you have to bust it up someway before you feed it into the wagon? All I could ever get grass hay to do in a horizontal was wrap around the auger so had to go vertical. That was 15 years ago so they've probably improved them by now. Just sounds like of additional work mixing ddg and straw and then putting that into a mixer wagon later on and mixing that mix with grass hay.

Well everything needs to be figured in but it wouldn't be much wear and tear on a feeder wagon to mix up one batch to figure out your consistancy of ddgs to hay or straw and then use a payloader or tractor with a loader to mix it from there while packing but I wouldn't want to run 15 semis of ddgs along with adding hay through a feeder wagon in a day or two. That sounds like asking for something to break and it would take a lot longer. So if you have one and you run one batch through no big deal but deffinately wouldn't make sense to go buy one to do it. Dumping a whole round bale in a horizontal mixer would be a disaster. It would be hard on the feeder wagon and the tractor on the pto. We just bust up the bale with the payloader for the rations that use hay in the feeder wagon. The most hay we have had in ours is 1000lbs and thats for freshly weaned calves so a whole round bale would be too much anyway. We run wdgs and silage with the hay so the hay is not making up a majority of the ration and then it doesn't wrap very much and the wdgs stick to the hay and make it work a lot better. Also a real augie by knight only has two augers and then one big wheel with bars on it that tumbles everything and isnt an auger. There are some horizontal mixers out there that have a plate mounted on them that works well for large square bales casue its at an angle and feeds the bale slowly to an auger with knives on it and it doesn't pull down the tractor.

 

[Stocker Steve]

For bagging WDDG you have to have at least a Modified version (45% Dry Matter) or it will sag too much and split the bags. Mixing hay into the WDDG isn't that hard. You don't need to mix it through a TMR wagon or what ever. I know several that just blended it up with a loader tractor as they shoved it up. TMR would be better but time consuming.

You can rent a TMR in most areas to fill WDDG bags during the summer with just enough fiber to keep them from splitting.

Also, there are usually there are a couple ethanol plants that offer free :banana: WDDG at some point during the summer because their dryer broke down. You need to be connected and have trucking ready to go...

 

[novaman]

Also, there are usually there are a couple ethanol plants that offer free :banana: WDDG at some point during the summer because their dryer broke down. You need to be connected and have trucking ready to go...

That has never happened here. They will just drop the price a little.

 

[TexasBred]

Also, there are usually there are a couple ethanol plants that offer free :banana: WDDG at some point during the summer because their dryer broke down. You need to be connected and have trucking ready to go...

That has never happened here. They will just drop the price a little.

I could never be that lucky either. :cry2:

 

[Dusty]

first 3 years we did all the work of mixing our WDGs with straw (through a verticle mixer) and then packing it like silage... 70/30 mix.. about 50plus loads over july ....

Then we took the next route.. We bought used concrete road dividers.. Lined them up about 35' apart and had the trucks just come in and unload them in our 125' long silo .. used a haybuster to just blow straw on top and we packed.. no ratio's and just put about it up and packed again and again.. what we have the last 4 years is a pile with about 1/3 the work and same results..

We do put a tarp on top the silo and we do get a crust.. about 3" on top ... but have it tested and no issues and we have been told ok to use it... We won't go back to using the mixer on it again..

the new thing that is a blast is to use the syurp .. mix it 70/30 with trash straw, soybean bales, cornstalks, and milo stalks and pack it the same.. don't cover it we just spray the syrup on top and it creates a rubber/ moisture proof seal... you have to feed it about 15% more but the costs are still lower on a costs per day/ costs per gain ... but you do have to have tanks for to hold 3/4 loads of syrup and then mutiple mixers and packing tractors.. in one day you can pack 15-20 loads of syrup ...

 

[TexasBred]

Both methods will work but using a vertical mixer to not only grind your stray but mix it with the DDG will definitely give you a much mix making the ration uniform for each cow. Your layering method can in no way give you teh accuracy of mixing. But if it works...what the heck. ;-)

 

[Amo]

One guy here just sprayed the syrup on as the haygrinder ground the trash ruffage. Tried to get 90 gal per bale. Then just feed it.

Im thinking of getting modified DDG this summer and covering it with the syrup. Who knows!

 

[novaman]

Im thinking of getting modified DDG this summer and covering it with the syrup. Who knows!

The plant I buy from puts a mold inhibitor on the modified through the summer months. If you do indeed go through with this, assuming the plant you buy from uses an inhibitor, make sure they are applying it at the time you buy. They don't like to start none to early here as it can be in the upper 70's before they will consider it. You can tell night and day difference in the amount of spoilage when it is applied.

 

[Amo]

Really, whats it called? Never heard of if. That would be great if it would be in there. If they are selling it for a discount because they have too much I don't know if it would be in there, but I will definatly ask...thanks!

 

[Stocker Steve]

Im thinking of getting modified DDG this summer and covering it with the syrup. Who knows!

The plant I buy from puts a mold inhibitor on the modified through the summer months. If you do indeed go through with this, assuming the plant you buy from uses an inhibitor, make sure they are applying it at the time you buy. They don't like to start none to early here as it can be in the upper 70's before they will consider it. You can tell night and day difference in the amount of spoilage when it is applied.

What is your estimate of the difference in waste with mold inhibiter?

 

[TexasBred]

Never fed any WDG but fed a lot of wet brewer's grain. Always had a little mold but just put it in the mixer wagon with the rest and fed it. Storing long term tho might actually have some "rot".

 

[novaman]

What is your estimate of the difference in waste with mold inhibiter?

Like I said it's night and day difference. I can tell without ever asking when they start putting it in the feed. This time of the year is the worst because they aren't putting it on yet and with these 60 and 70 degree days it doesn't take more than 5 days and there is a lot of mold showing up. I try to pick up only as much as I would use in 7 days through the warm weather because even with the inhibitor you'll start to see a lot of mold after a week. I would hate to see what the distillers would look like in 90 degree weather without the inhibitor though.