question on silage/plastic wrap

rjbovine · Jun 2, 2013

I'm not fimilar with using this wrap. I've heard that wheat and clovers and alfalfa can be packaged this way and makes good feed. Could grasses like fescue and orchard grass be packaged this way ? Would it make better feed making it like silage . Seem like when the grass hay is ready to cut ether the weather will not cooperate or corn and bean planting get in the way . So the grass get to mature . thank you rj

kenny thomas · Jun 2, 2013

I don't wrap but do have some answers. Yes any grasses can be done this way. It is expensive so many people just do the higher quality forage this way.

Dega Moo · Jun 3, 2013

We tube wrap quite a bit of hay. If baled at a proper moisture and wrapped promptly enough the hay will ferment like silage and not develop mold. Palatability is good but I don't believe it improves nutritional value. It works well with just about every grass around here. It adds a step(labor) as well as a piece of equipment and additional fuel and the cost of the wrap into your operation. I've heard costs of $3 a bale more to around $8 a bale. We figure about $5.

Wrap doesn't completely remove you from the whims of the weather but it's really nice to be able to get hay out when you would otherwise watch it over mature. There are some logistic issues selling, moving or staging tube wrapped bales versus non-wrapped or individually wrapped bales. There are some logistic issues managing the waste when the bales are used. We sometimes have issues getting wet bales off the field and to the wrapper in the weather we're seeing this year. (If we wrapped individually as we baled many of these issues go away.)

At the same time, you can store the hay out in the weather more successfully than unwrapped and you can make hay in weather conditions that shutdown unwrapped operations. In the end, it's a tool that will be appropriate for certain situations and not so much for others.

cowgirl_jenna · Jun 4, 2013

It is expensive so many people just do the higher quality forage this way

It is pricey, but with HIGH feed costs I think it pays to wrap hay. We do a lot of tube wrapping. If done right, There is very little field loss, no spoilage, and the cattle clean up every bit of it. The biggest thing is be sure you dont let your grass or small grains get too old/ripe. This will hinder fermentation. Also, dont skimp on the number of layers you use on the bales, we did at first, and had poor results. Balage is great feed, but it does require good management to get good feed.
Jenna

inyati13 · Jun 5, 2013

cowgirl_jenna":37xadqhk said:
It is expensive so many people just do the higher quality forage this way

Click to expand...

It is pricey, but with HIGH feed costs I think it pays to wrap hay. We do a lot of tube wrapping. If done right, There is very little field loss, no spoilage, and the cattle clean up every bit of it. The biggest thing is be sure you dont let your grass or small grains get too old/ripe. This will hinder fermentation. Also, dont skimp on the number of layers you use on the bales, we did at first, and had poor results. Balage is great feed, but it does require good management to get good feed.
Jenna

At last years Ag day in our county, they did a demonstration of what they called "Haylage". According to the young man that did the demonstration, the nutrient levels are 4 times better that field cured hay. The UK extension service in our county purchsed one of the wrappers. It can be reserved and leased for $100 a day. The wrap material cost about $3 per roll if I remember correctly. The set up that was demonstrated was that you roll the freshly cut hay before it was cured. Then you use a front spear to load the roll onto the carriage of the wrapper. It think you could continue to load them in a continuous wrap like peas in a pod or you could individually wrap them. But they called it haylage, I am sure on that.