Making Haylage

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Depends. If put up at the same time, my cows prefer the baleage. But, generally, we put up 1st cutting mid June & try to put up all 2nd cutting dry. They definitely prefer the 2nd cut dry hay.
And yes, freezing weather freezes the baleage. Generally, it's just the outside layer. I take the spear & lift off the top to break it open. But, my hay is all stored outside, so the dry hay can have a frozen layer that they cannot get through without help also.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

I bales some on the wet side even for balage last spring and when it was -30 a couple weeks back for a few days straight I couldn't even get the spear into those bales, even with the bales flat side down and pushing the spear straight down into them... haha

 

[Texasmark]

If you please: Haylage is a new term for me and within the last few years started to get popular around here. If I understand what you are talking about:

I have seen choppers cutting green, growing, corn, the entire plant with cobs, and shooting into an accompanying grain cart and dumping the cart on the ground in a long row. A covering machine works the row bringing a white plastic sheet over the pile which may be 100' or so long and (guessing) 8' wide. In the winter, the sheet is rolled back and the contents picked up and dumped in feeding troughs for cows, working back through the row and rolling the covering back as progression continues. From a distance appears to be brown in color.

I have seen bales of something (didn't see the baling process) in like 5x6 dimensions that were encased in white plastic and lined up in rows just like you would do with normal hay.

I have baled hay when moisture was too high and got some mildew (for a name) as a result, or burning from the bale going through to much "of a sweat" if lined up end to end immediately after baling, some actually starting a fire.
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I'm told that for Haylage, or Silage (if that's the correct term) to work, has to be deprived of ambient air or you will get mildew and rot. My "too wet" hay (25% moisture for a number) that started burning was the inside diameters of the 5x6 rolls, butted end to end where air was deprived!!!!!

If I read the responses in this thread, it appears to me that some folks are deliberately baling hay with 60% moisture in rolls and processing it as they would dry hay......did I miss something?

Main reason for my curiosity is that, like most folks, spring baling of winter crops is a problem with spring rains preventing proper drying of the crop and I have one that will be coming off this spring .

Thanks for your time.
Mark

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Haylage, silage, baleage is a crop baled at 30 to 60 percent moisture and then quickly wrapped in several layers of plastic either in long rows or individually. The plastic doesn't allow air for the bacteria and mold to grow, what little air is in the plastic is quickly used up and the plastic actually shrinks on the bale. The crop is left wrapped for a while where it goes through an ensiling process (just as traditional pit silage does) and when it comes out has a different smell and taste than it would dry. Some crops ensile better than others and at different moisture contents.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Actually, haylage & silage is CHOPPED crop/grass and is generally stored in a bunk, or blown into a tube.
Baleage, is a large round bale at a high moisture content, and either wrapped individually (marshmellows as I call them), or in a tube line or wrapped in-line.
In-line, each bale is put on a ramp that has a "ferris-wheel" with rolls of plastic that goes around & around the bale. Generally about 5 -8 layers (guessing).
The ensiling process is actually a COLD process, not a heated process like Haylage & silage.
Your "dry" bales, had access to air all around them, even in-between bales and was allowed to spoil.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

The terms are largely regional. I've never heard of it referred to baleage or haylage other that online, everybody I've talked to within 300 miles of here says they are baling and wrapping silage. Or they are chopping silage to put into a silo or pit.

 

[Boot Jack Bulls]

The terms are largely regional. I've never heard of it referred to baleage or haylage other that online, everybody I've talked to within 300 miles of here says they are baling and wrapping silage. Or they are chopping silage to put into a silo or pit.

True about the regionalism. In our area, no one uses the term haylage. It is baleage (hay) or silage (corn).
We feed both dry/traditional hay and baleage. Right now, the lactating cows and young heifers are on a baleage. Some of my younger bulls (1-3yrs old) are also on baleage. All of my older bulls are on dry afalfa/grass mix hay. We simply adjust which hay everything gets based on body condition. I have found that the baleage can be way too much protein for some of the older bulls who are not working through the winter.

 

[Silver]

The thing about silage bales is that if you are going to make it you need to make enough to make it worthwhile. It takes a little while to get their guts working on it.
We wrap quite a bit of our hay and oats. The best silage you will wrap is a crop you intend to wrap. If you are wrapping because it's been rained on or such it won't be optimal. Cut an optimal crop one day and wilt over night (extra day or two for oats) and the feed can't be beat.
One thing I like about oats is the young animals clean it up. When oats are baled dry the stems become a tough sell.
Oat silage bales are a lot easier to roll out in the cold than hay bale silage.

 

[Tbrake]

The thing about silage bales is that if you are going to make it you need to make enough to make it worthwhile. It takes a little while to get their guts working on it.
We wrap quite a bit of our hay and oats. The best silage you will wrap is a crop you intend to wrap. If you are wrapping because it's been rained on or such it won't be optimal. Cut an optimal crop one day and wilt over night (extra day or two for oats) and the feed can't be beat.
One thing I like about oats is the young animals clean it up. When oats are baled dry the stems become a tough sell.
Oat silage bales are a lot easier to roll out in the cold than hay bale silage.

We wrapped little over 200 oat bales this last year, messed around and let it get to dry.43% Looks almost like straw in the bale. Still has the sweet fermented smell, and the cows eat it pretty decent. Tested out at 8.5% protein. On your oats that were put up at the optimum time and moisture what did they test at? I had to mow them about a week later than I wanted, field was so wet couldn't even walk on it. We plan to give it another try this spring. Used to plant Sudan, but had to miss a bean crop on that particular spot. With oats we can still plant beans behind them

 

[TexasBred]

The thing about silage bales is that if you are going to make it you need to make enough to make it worthwhile. It takes a little while to get their guts working on it.
We wrap quite a bit of our hay and oats. The best silage you will wrap is a crop you intend to wrap. If you are wrapping because it's been rained on or such it won't be optimal. Cut an optimal crop one day and wilt over night (extra day or two for oats) and the feed can't be beat.
One thing I like about oats is the young animals clean it up. When oats are baled dry the stems become a tough sell.
Oat silage bales are a lot easier to roll out in the cold than hay bale silage.

Oat hay cut and baled in it's prime is hard to beat and cattle love it.

 

[Silver]

Oat hay cut and baled in it's prime is hard to beat and cattle love it.

There are compromises to be made with oat hay. You can seed heavy and cut it before it heads to make nice hay, or you can seed it lighter and get more bulk and the benefit of the grain. If you take the latter route the young calves tend to sift through it for the grain and turn their noses up at the straw. But if it is baled as silage at this point they tend to enjoy the whole eating experience.
We are usually using the oats as a cover crop on new hay ground so prefer not to seed heavy, 2 bu. per acre, so as not to steal too much moisture and out compete the new hay.

 

[TexasBred]

Oat hay cut and baled in it's prime is hard to beat and cattle love it.

There are compromises to be made with oat hay. You can seed heavy and cut it before it heads to make nice hay, or you can seed it lighter and get more bulk and the benefit of the grain. If you take the latter route the young calves tend to sift through it for the grain and turn their noses up at the straw. But if it is baled as silage at this point they tend to enjoy the whole eating experience.
We are usually using the oats as a cover crop on new hay ground so prefer not to seed heavy, 2 bu. per acre, so as not to steal too much moisture and out compete the new hay.

Don't know anything about row crops silver but when we fed oat hay to dairy cattle (had some immature heads in it) they would literally fight over it and milk would go up considerably.