MILO STOCK BALES

[piedmontese]

how good are milo stock bales that are very leafy and small stemmed.no nitrate problems.thanx in advance for any info.

 

[jedstivers]

how good are milo stock bales that are very leafy and small stemmed.no nitrate problems.thanx in advance for any info.

Once they are 2 years old an starting to rot the cows will clean them up before they touch good hay. Prol not much protein but good filler an you can add something if you need too. Beats a snowball for sure.

 

[1982vett]

Better than corn stalks.

 

[TexasBred]

how good are milo stock bales that are very leafy and small stemmed.no nitrate problems.thanx in advance for any info.

Cattle love the things. Don't know what the typical analysis on them is but one year after milo was cut and the stalks allowed to get a little regrowth, I tested some at 11.9% crude protein. Owner thouht it was a mistake, so went and got another sample from another stack and they tested 12.1% crude protein. The bales are very heavy as well and have seen some close to 2300 lbs.

 

[Caustic Burno]

how good are milo stock bales that are very leafy and small stemmed.no nitrate problems.thanx in advance for any info.

Cattle love the things. Don't know what the typical analysis on them is but one year after milo was cut and the stalks allowed to get a little regrowth, I tested some at 11.9% crude protein. Owner thouht it was a mistake, so went and got another sample from another stack and they tested 12.1% crude protein. The bales are very heavy as well and have seen some close to 2300 lbs.

I planted pearl millet couple years ago the cows loved it. They would turn their nose up to coastal to get to a millet bale. But as you said those are some heavy bales, I reset the baler from 4x5 to 4x4. You had to have a bale on the back of that 60 hp tractor when you got to stacking them.

 

[LRTX1]

How hard is it to bail the Millet? Do you need a special bailer? Never bailed any hay but just found out my neighbor bought a bailer to start putting up his own hay and wondering if it would be feasible to have him come bail a couple 5 acres of milet for me. I don't feed a lot of hay 30-40 bales is the most we have ever used. Just thinking of saving a buck or two somewhere.

 

[Caustic Burno]

How hard is it to bail the Millet? Do you need a special bailer? Never bailed any hay but just found out my neighbor bought a bailer to start putting up his own hay and wondering if it would be feasible to have him come bail a couple 5 acres of milet for me. I don't feed a lot of hay 30-40 bales is the most we have ever used. Just thinking of saving a buck or two somewhere.

Never had a problem baling it but it takes forever to dry.

 

[Angus Cowman]

How hard is it to bail the Millet? Do you need a special bailer? Never bailed any hay but just found out my neighbor bought a bailer to start putting up his own hay and wondering if it would be feasible to have him come bail a couple 5 acres of milet for me. I don't feed a lot of hay 30-40 bales is the most we have ever used. Just thinking of saving a buck or two somewhere.

Like CB said bales fine just heck to get it to dry out
as for cutting you need a mower conditioner because with a simple disc mower I don't know if you could ever get it dry

also millet likes nitrogen and with estimates on what N is going to cost this yr I don't know if you will save any money or not

it does make great feed

 

[LRTX1]

Thanks for the replies, I might just see if he has a mower conditioner and is interested in bailing some on halves maybe.

 

[jedstivers]

how good are milo stock bales that are very leafy and small stemmed.no nitrate problems.thanx in advance for any info.

Cattle love the things. Don't know what the typical analysis on them is but one year after milo was cut and the stalks allowed to get a little regrowth, I tested some at 11.9% crude protein. Owner thouht it was a mistake, so went and got another sample from another stack and they tested 12.1% crude protein. The bales are very heavy as well and have seen some close to 2300 lbs.

I didn't know it would test that good but with the regrowth that makes since.

 

[TexasBred]

Jed I have no idea what the more typical test results would be. I'm sure it wouldn't be that high. But it's very leafy, contains a lot of sugars and cattle love the darn things. Since it is heavily fertilized I'd think it should test about as good as our typical grass hay which isn't that good either. Personally I'd rather see those stalks shredded and plowed back into the ground.

 

[bigbull338]

millet drys better if you cut it with mo/co to crimp the stems.we used to custom cut some millet an hay grazer for that reason.

 

[1982vett]

Jed I have no idea what the more typical test results would be. I'm sure it wouldn't be that high. But it's very leafy, contains a lot of sugars and cattle love the darn things. Since it is heavily fertilized I'd think it should test about as good as our typical grass hay which isn't that good either. Personally I'd rather see those stalks shredded and plowed back into the ground.

Same here. Off subject - but I think bio-mass for "renewable energy sources"...get paid for your crop residue...isn't going to turn out well for the land in the future. Course the fertilizer companies love the idea. However, commercial fertilizer doesn't build soil structure the way organic matter does. This type of energy "source" shouldn't come from "all the starving children". Don't understand the same "do good" type of people push both agendas and can't see past there nose as to what effect one has on the other.

 

[alabama]

If you are going to plant it to bale why not just plant brown top millit. It drys easy and cows love it. Cut it before the seed gets hard so that it stays on the stem while raking and rolling.

 

[TexasBred]

If you are going to plant it to bale why not just plant brown top millit. It drys easy and cows love it. Cut it before the seed gets hard so that it stays on the stem while raking and rolling.

Alabama all of it around here is planted to combine. After combining some of the farmers also bale the stalk which is pretty much left intact when combining. A pretty good source of supplemental income especially in dry years when the milo production is down.

 

[piedmontese]

the guy had the milo stalk bales tested and they r 7% protein.weigh 1,400lbs and he wants $25.each.is it worth it? i have never fed them.

 

[bigbull338]

yes a 1400lb round bale of milo is worth $25.thats getting the milo for free.

 

[TexasBred]

the guy had the milo stalk bales tested and they r 7% protein.weigh 1,400lbs and he wants $25.each.is it worth it? i have never fed them.

It is if you really need it. Low protein and must be small bales to only weigh 1400. Forget about the milo. I'm sure it was combined before the stalks were baled.

 

[piedmontese]

the guy had the milo stalk bales tested and they r 7% protein.weigh 1,400lbs and he wants $25.each.is it worth it? i have never fed them.

It is if you really need it. Low protein and must be small bales to only weigh 1400. Forget about the milo. I'm sure it was combined before the stalks were baled.

yea it was harvested.so i would be just as good to continue feeding the prairie that i already have.it is average quality.i picked up some 1,500lb bales of alfalfa for $50 each.it is real leafy but it does have a few weeds,not too bad.the cows sure enjoy it.i give them 1 bale of it a week and the rest prairie hay.

 

[mikegahr]

I've been baling milo stalk for 4 or 5 yrs. and cattle will eat it twice as good a our beast bermuda hay and they seem to to good on it, just need to check the nitrate level on it first, i want bale the first bale till i have it checked