Help me to understand

[farmguy]

Help me to understand what I did wrong. I thought that this was a place to exchange ideas and learn. I waited a few days before posting to let feelings calm. I made a comment on round bales. I guess if I had a problem with storage and someone else didn't I would want to learn. I don't believe I was being offensive in any manner and where did the comments on precipitation falling to earth come from? I copied and pasted the comments. dyates and travlnusa what caused this reaction? Thank you Farmguy

Re: Haylage vs Round Bales
by dyates on Mon Mar 10, 2008 2:12 pm
Alfalfa makes sorry roll hay unless you store it inside or wrap it. It won't shed water like grass, so by feeding season, half of your rolls will probably be rotted. Having said that, go with haylage. I would also think you would need more roughage than alfalfa haylage would provide, so you will still have to have some grass hay of some sort.
dyates

Alfalfa keeps very well in round bales stored inside or out. I think if you have storage problems other issues must be involved. Farmguy

farmguy wrote:Alfalfa keeps very well in round bales stored inside or out. I think if you have storage problems other issues must be involved. Farmguy
Doesn't it rain in Minnesota? Alfalfa will not shed water like grass when kept outside. When rolled in late May/early June with our normal rainfall, you will experience at least a 30%loss, usually more. The rain runs right down into the rolls and they rot. We have cranked up the pressure on the roller to tighten up the rolls; they still don't shed water.
dyates

All I know is what I know. I use a 554XL Vermer baler. I think that is the number as baler is in the shed. Yes it does rain in Minnesota. This is my experience and obviously yours is different. No need for snide remarks. thank you Farmguy

by travlnusa on Wed Mar 12, 2008 9:59 pm
Thanks to all that offered quite a few thing for me to consider, most I had not thought of myself. That is why I come here.

To FarmGuy, yes it does rain in Minnesota. In the winter we get what we call snow. That would be forzen rain. I see that you are from Minnesota, so I am happy to help out someone else here in the midwest understand how moisture falls to earth.

It is time for this thread to end.

 

[IluvABbeef]

My question to mr. dyates is where does he get is information that alfalfa is not a good forage to use as dry hay??? I think that's a load of bull. Alfalfa is stemmy when cut, and makes good, solid round bales because it has that nice stemmy material, unlike grasses which have mostly vegetative material (i.e., leaves). We have bales that are made of about 80% alfalfa and they shed water just fine, and have fed them when they're over a year old, up to two years. They sit out in the open all year. Maybe its becuase of the fact that dyates doesn't let the alfalfa dry long enough or doesn't crimp the windrows to crack the stems and the moisture left makes the bales get moldy and not last the whole year. Or perhaps the bales weren't packed tight enough? More often than not its the drying process and time-length before baling up the cut forages that determines the fact whether or not you get moldy hay, IMHO, NOT storage after they've been baled. I'm just on here to give my thoughts. If someone wants to chew me out for making this post or just getting involved be my guest, because like I said I'm just putting in my two cents here.

Okay I'm done.

 

[KMacGinley]

We have never had problems with Alfalfa in Round bales... I hadn't realized there was such an Alfalfa roundbale holocaust going on for some people.

 

[TexasBred]

Never had a problem storing or feeding alfalfa but there is an art to baling it. Not like just cutting and rolling up grass. Gotta do it right :!: :!:

 

[john250]

With 45 inches of annual rainfall, (except last year) I make sure the alfalfa gets in to the barn, or at least under a cover. Losses in outdoor storage will be higher than grass hay. Grass "thatches" a lot more than alfalfa. Plus, the alfalfa is more valuable than grass so I take greater pains to protect it.

 

[dyates]

Sorry I offended anyone. I never said that all alfalfa made bad dry feed. I said that it doesn't store in round bales like grass does with our normal rainfall. Like the previous poster said, we have to get alfalfa rolls under a roof or we will experience a loss of at least 25-30 percent by feeding time. Also as the previous poster said, alfalfa doesn't "thatch" like grass does. Yes, I use a conditioner to reduce curing time. No, I don't roll wet hay. If I were rolling wet hay, the rot and mold would be inside the roll, not on the outside. Yes, we roll them as tight as possible. We even tried some so tight that I couldn't pick them up with a Ford 4600 with 400 pounds of weight on the front. I was only stating my experience and I apologize if I became argumentative.

 

[IluvABbeef]

No offence taken, just wondered how alfalfa could be getting so moldy so quick like that. And now I see.

But, as always, its different climate = (slightly) different management schemes. And a bunch of other factors I didn't mention that come into play.

 

[novatech]

One other consideration is that as a norm alfalfa will be higher in protein than most other forages. That being the case it will normally spoil faster, as the same protein (N) that is good for the cattle is also good for the little buggers that rot forage. (Given a little moisture)