Help on baleage crops

[kentuckyguy]

I am getting ready to purchase a bale wrapper due to working 12 hour swing shifts and never having time off and good weather at the same time.

I still plan to make dry hay mostly but will also be cutting hay at the ideal stage of maturity and wrapping it. Also think this will help with getting up all the volunteer Johnson grass I end up with.

What crops have you found best to plant for baleage? I only have a couple acres that I plan to sow but want to get the most tonnage out of it. I assume a winter annual followed by a summer annual would prolly be the best option.

 

[Atimm693]

Winter wheat and something like sorghum/sudan is popular here. Cut wheat early in late April or early May if weather allows, spray and drill your sudan. Put wheat back in first week of October. We'll get 3-4 cuttings of Sudan and the wheat will make 3-4 tons an acre.

 

[CalumetFarms]

I am getting ready to purchase a bale wrapper due to working 12 hour swing shifts and never having time off and good weather at the same time.

I still plan to make dry hay mostly but will also be cutting hay at the ideal stage of maturity and wrapping it. Also think this will help with getting up all the volunteer Johnson grass I end up with.

What crops have you found best to plant for baleage? I only have a couple acres that I plan to sow but want to get the most tonnage out of it. I assume a winter annual followed by a summer annual would prolly be the best option.

What kind of wrapper you going for? I think exactly what Atimm693 said is what works best here too

 

[BFE]

Triticale will make more hay and just as good if not better quality than wheat.

 

[kentuckyguy]

Winter wheat and something like sorghum/sudan is popular here. Cut wheat early in late April or early May if weather allows, spray and drill your sudan. Put wheat back in first week of October. We'll get 3-4 cuttings of Sudan and the wheat will make 3-4 tons an acre.

How do you go about cutting to get good regrowth?

I have read of cutting 6-8" high but I don't have anything that will cut that high.

How well do cows eat the stems in Sudan baleage?

 

[kentuckyguy]

What kind of wrapper you going for? I think exactly what Atimm693 said is what works best here too

I am planning to get the farm king bw150

 

[cfpinz]

I am planning to get the farm king bw150

Just watched a video of someone running one, would be ok if you've got 2 people - one running the wrapper tractor and the other on a loader tractor with a grapple. Out of curiosity, how much is a wrapper like that selling for?

 

[kentuckyguy]

Just watched a video of someone running one, would be ok if you've got 2 people - one running the wrapper tractor and the other on a loader tractor with a grapple. Out of curiosity, how much is a wrapper like that selling for?

I haven't received a final quote in stone but I think around $4200-4400

I have family members living on the farm that can help me load bales so that's no big deal

 

[Stickney94]

We've had a similar wrapper since 2016. A couple suggestions -- use a bale spear -- works much better than a grapple. Don't let the hay get to dry. And wrapping individual bales is GREATLY aided by making uniform and tight bales. We make baleage out of alfalfa and grass mix (orchard/brome/fescue mix).

 

[Atimm693]

How do you go about cutting to get good regrowth?

I have read of cutting 6-8" high but I don't have anything that will cut that high.

How well do cows eat the stems in Sudan baleage?

We cut high, 4-6". Disc mower conditioner, use spacers in the cylinders that lift the wheels to raise it.

We use a Vermeer BW5500. Most of the time is in the setup and changing rolls, once it's going it'll wrap about as fast as you can feed it.

I don't know how big your bales are but a spike is all we can use. Our 50x48 wet bales are 1800-2000lbs each. Grapple is too heavy.

Silage really makes the stems more palatable, but there will be some waste, they will sort for the tender stuff. The taller it gets, the bigger and tougher the stems are.

 

[kentuckyguy]

I was debating going with piper sudangrass or sorghum almum to try and get smaller stems. I don't have pre cut knives on the baler so I would like to keep stems smaller.

 

[callmefence]

We've had a similar wrapper since 2016. A couple suggestions -- use a bale spear -- works much better than a grapple. Don't let the hay get to dry. And wrapping individual bales is GREATLY aided by making uniform and tight bales. We make baleage out of alfalfa and grass mix (orchard/brome/fescue mix).

We cut high, 4-6". Disc mower conditioner, use spacers in the cylinders that lift the wheels to raise it.

We use a Vermeer BW5500. Most of the time is in the setup and changing rolls, once it's going it'll wrap about as fast as you can feed it.

I don't know how big your bales are but a spike is all we can use. Our 50x48 wet bales are 1800-2000lbs each. Grapple is too heavy.

Silage really makes the stems more palatable, but there will be some waste, they will sort for the tender stuff. The taller it gets, the bigger and tougher the stems are.

Please pardon my ignorance on baleage.

I've been lead to believe you shouldn't use a spear on wrapped bales. Is that not the case??

 

[Atimm693]

Please pardon my ignorance on baleage.

I've been lead to believe you shouldn't use a spear on wrapped bales. Is that not the case??

Kinda depends on whether you need to handle them after wrapping or not. The Farmking wrapper that was mentioned will dump the bale by itself when it's done.

You don't want to poke any holes in the plastic, so if you need to move them a spear isn't a good idea.

 

[Stickney94]

Please pardon my ignorance on baleage.

I've been lead to believe you shouldn't use a spear on wrapped bales. Is that not the case??

Use a spear to load the bale on the wrapper.

Once wrapped -- we dump the bales in a fairly orderly row (dump bale, move tractor with wrapper ahead 10 ft) -- and often just leave them where they get dumped until we feed them in the winter.

We do have a bale hugger and we do use it for restacking/moving. Once the baleage is properly ensiled though a couple bale spear holes doesn't usually amount to much spoilage.

 

[cfpinz]

I've used the double spears on a front end loader/skid steer to move wrapped bales, just slide them under the bale and don't poke a hole in the wrap.

 

[Silver]

Seems like an individual wrapper would use a lot more plastic than an inline.

 

[kentuckyguy]

Seems like an individual wrapper would use a lot more plastic than an inline.

I agree but it also gives me a lot of flexibility. I'm just a small timer with 20 cows at the most.
I don't think I could ever make a in-line wrapper pencil out

 

[BFE]

If you poke holes in the wrap just tape them shut.