Round baled alfalfa baleage

[BILL CLAYLAND]

Round baled alfalfa baleage-Individually wrapped 1500-200lbs.
Just talk to a dairy farmer about 12 miles from me and he has 250 of these bales for $45.00 each.
wrapped wet in the bag.
Is this a good deal?
I can get hay cheaper $25 bale but this seems better quality.

Bill

 

[dun]

A couple of ifs! If it was put up properly, if you have a way to feed it, if you can handle it without piercing the wrapper, if you have a heavy enough tractor to handle it, if your cows will eat it (mine won;t touch the stuff), then is sounds like a pretty decent deal

 

[TexasBred]

Round baled alfalfa baleage-Individually wrapped 1500-200lbs.
Just talk to a dairy farmer about 12 miles from me and he has 250 of these bales for $45.00 each.
wrapped wet in the bag.
Is this a good deal?
I can get hay cheaper $25 bale but this seems better quality.

Bill

And don't forget...it's probably 60-65% water so the cattle will have to eat a huge amount of it to equal their daily hay/grazing intake but it should have a good protein content and be pretty digestible if it was put up on time.

 

[BILL CLAYLAND]

I here ya Dun, I only have a spear on a tractor and not sure it will even pick them up if i could even run the tractor in 2 foot of snow.
Right know im just rolling a couple round hay bales at a time off the back of the pickup and rolling them throught the gate as i need them but they have been sitting outside since summer.
I havent been using a feeder just laying them on the ground.
The guys has 1st 2nd 3rd and forth cutting, so sounds like hes been ontop of it.
Dun, your cattle dont like em huh???
My buddy said its like a salad.....
Bill

 

[dun]

I here ya Dun, I only have a spear on a tractor and not sure it will even pick them up if i could even run the tractor in 2 foot of snow.
Right know im just rolling a couple round hay bales at a time off the back of the pickup and rolling them throught the gate as i need them but they have been sitting outside since summer.
I havent been using a feeder just laying them on the ground.
The guys has 1st 2nd 3rd and forth cutting, so sounds like hes been ontop of it.
Dun, your cattle dont like em huh???
My buddy said its like a salad.....
Bill

Pretty clear you're not really set up to use it.
Neighbors dairy cows eat it like candy, my cows and his beef cows won;t touch it. Could be that they're used to poorer quality stuff and his dairy cows are used to the good stuff

 

[BILL CLAYLAND]

Yeah also with my 3 head, they eat the hay rounds in a week. (ive been getting them for $10 stored outside)
So 3 cows for 7 days =21 and at $45 a bale is $2.14 a day per head,, thats steep. Assuming it will last a week,, maybe more because of the weight, but like TB says lotta moisture content.

 

[dun]

In a week it's gonna get kind of funky too

 

[TexasBred]

Yeah also with my 3 head, they eat the hay rounds in a week. (ive been getting them for $10 stored outside)
So 3 cows for 7 days =21 and at $45 a bale is $2.14 a day per head,, thats steep. Assuming it will last a week,, maybe more because of the weight, but like TB says lotta moisture content.

Bill...I was going to say just cut a big hole in the bottom of the wrap before you lift it with the tractor and then I thought.....up in your area those things would be like a block of ice til about May wouldn't they??

 

[c farmer]

Yeah also with my 3 head, they eat the hay rounds in a week. (ive been getting them for $10 stored outside)
So 3 cows for 7 days =21 and at $45 a bale is $2.14 a day per head,, thats steep. Assuming it will last a week,, maybe more because of the weight, but like TB says lotta moisture content.

Bill...I was going to say just cut a big hole in the bottom of the wrap before you lift it with the tractor and then I thought.....up in your area those things would be like a block of ice til about May wouldn't they??

I feed around 150 bales of baleage over the winter and believe it or not they dont freeze that hard, they just get a little crusty on the outside.

 

[fargus]

The other question is do you need a higher quality feed than you are using right now? If the cows are in good shape, and holding it on the feed you have, why switch to a higher quality more expensive feed? If you needed the higher protein and digestibility than you could find a way around the handling issues, but why go there if you don't need to?

We're the same as c farmer, if it is put up properly it doesn't freeze.

 

[TexasBred]

The other question is do you need a higher quality feed than you are using right now? If the cows are in good shape, and holding it on the feed you have, why switch to a higher quality more expensive feed? If you needed the higher protein and digestibility than you could find a way around the handling issues, but why go there if you don't need to?

We're the same as c farmer, if it is put up properly it doesn't freeze.

Really?? I figured the water would freeze especially at extremely low temperatures over a long period of time. Learn something everyday. Thanks.

 

[KNERSIE]

If it is put up correctly there won't be any "loose" water in the wrapping.

Its not really an option for 3 head, it needs to be consumed fairly quickly otherwise you'll have to manually take the crust off for the cows to eat it in my experience. We work roughly on 1 bale /25 cows per day. Some people say 1/35, but I think that is pushing your luck.

 

[TexasBred]

If it is put up correctly there won't be any "loose" water in the wrapping.

Its not really an option for 3 head, it needs to be consumed fairly quickly otherwise you'll have to manually take the crust off for the cows to eat it in my experience. We work roughly on 1 bale /25 cows per day. Some people say 1/35, but I think that is pushing your luck.

Knersie...all I've seen put up this way in our area was coastal bermuda....they would cut it, allow it to do little more than wilt adn then bale and wrap. Months down the road when they were ready to feed it and cut the wrap off the bottom of the bale would look to contain 15-20 gallons of water or "juice".

 

[KNERSIE]

If it is put up correctly there won't be any "loose" water in the wrapping.

Its not really an option for 3 head, it needs to be consumed fairly quickly otherwise you'll have to manually take the crust off for the cows to eat it in my experience. We work roughly on 1 bale /25 cows per day. Some people say 1/35, but I think that is pushing your luck.

Knersie...all I've seen put up this way in our area was coastal bermuda....they would cut it, allow it to do little more than wilt adn then bale and wrap. Months down the road when they were ready to feed it and cut the wrap off the bottom of the bale would look to contain 15-20 gallons of water or "juice".

I've put up oats, alfalfa, oats and alfalfa and have seen various other combinations, the only time there was "juice" in the bale was when oats was baled when there was still lots of dew on it in the early morning in the winter.

Typically we would cut the previous day, bale and wrap the next as soon as the dew has evaporated. I have cut baled and wrapped alfalfa on the same day without having any juice in the bale.

 

[dun]

We wrap it at about 40% moisture and there will be some liquid in the bags after it has cured. Some days (and weather conditions when cut) that's late the same day, others it's a day or sometimes 2 later

 

[c farmer]

We wrap it at about 40% moisture and there will be some liquid in the bags after it has cured. Some days (and weather conditions when cut) that's late the same day, others it's a day or sometimes 2 later

Why 40% moisture, I was told to bale at 65% and I have water in the bale on the bottom but it doesnt seam to hurt it.

 

[dun]

We wrap it at about 40% moisture and there will be some liquid in the bags after it has cured. Some days (and weather conditions when cut) that's late the same day, others it's a day or sometimes 2 later

Why 40% moisture, I was told to bale at 65% and I have water in the bale on the bottom but it doesnt seam to hurt it.

Have no idea why 40% that's just the number that was suggested by the dairy guys that feed the stuff

 

[shorty]

We have baled from 35-70% , at higher moistures some juice will run out the bottom when you open the bale but it still seems to feed okay . I was told 50% was the perfect moisture but sometimes it's hard to hit it perfect everytime , and with alfalfa if you wait too long you will loose leaves that got too dry on top of the windrow.