Silage bails

[gotfire]

I ended up with about 150 alfalfa / clove and about 150 corn silage bails (default on barn rent). It was all cut the first of June wrapped 4 times in the field hauled and had 3 more layers put on before being stacked in my barn. From bail to stack was about 8 hours (form what I was told).

The last time I fed silage is when I was 17 working on a dairy. I did take 3 rolls of each down to the dairy I worked at and talked to the old man about it. It looked and smelled good; he tossed it all right out to his young girls. But I could not talk him into buying it all because it's too much of a pain for him to mess with (would go bad once moved).

I want to feed it to my girls to get rid of it. With the weather it looks like I'll have to put them to pasture in the next week when we would feed hay for 45 to 90 days before putting them back out to MOB.

With 353 heifers and 344 calves (wean in April) how many bails of each would to put out. We use 6 overhead hay feeders that hold 2 full and 2 - 1/2 bails each. I have a bunker off my barn that would be easy to use; it should hold 4 bails. I don't plan on letting them run out of hay but would toss out the silage as an option.

They have crushed salt and 2 different mixes of minerals.

I know to watch for bloat and to watch there pie's to see how there handling everything.
How many bails would you try to put out a day of each? (I have plenty of hay but what this stuff gone.)

 

[KNERSIE]

How many depends entirely on the size of the bales.

Just as an indication, for normal sized roundbales I feed 1 bale of alfalfa baleage per 25 cows per day. Off course they will eat more if given the change, but they don't need more than that.

 

[bigbull338]

i think id put out 7 to 10 bales of balage for 350hd a day.an go up or down on the bales on an as ate basis.

 

[gertguy]

your bug on your avatar had me swatting the screen
why do you want to get rid of it so bad. this is really good stufff(what i have seen)

 

[gotfire]

I rented out that barn for 3 months paid for 2 up front. They guy moved in a MF 7485 with 3850 hours on it, MF 2745 round bailer, 300 + bails of silage, a bail wrapper, and a bunch of other stuff; everything is in good condition. The guy paid for 2 months up front loaded the barn and have never seen or talked to him again.

It cost me $1,800 in fees and court (the tractor makes up for that). I ended up having to sell round bails out of the field that had been rained on because I had no room to store them and lost a bit of cash. With out the silage I would have been able to hold a bunch of hay till early spring when I start grazing and everyone is out of hay and make a good chunk selling 90% of it.

I think the bails are 6' by 5'. I didn't get them on a scale never thought of it.

The only real place the silage fits into my setup over the winter. By mid spring I will be wanting more cows because there not keeping up with the grass growing. The way my barn is set up you can't get to the back of the silage piles and I don't want to burry them. So far no one will buy any; but a few might get a few off me latter on in the year.



If my avatar is that bad I'll get rid of it, just let me know…

 

[HerefordSire]

You may be thinking about this the wrong way. Why not quadruple the number of heifers by buying more since they appear to be very attractive prices. That'll make the balage dissappear four times as fast and your money will be stored in increasing body weights and hopefully female prices will increase by spring. A double whammy. Oversold market plus making beef. To protect yourself, you could buy some feeder cattle contract puts for the downside protection.

 

[gertguy]

no i thought your avatar was neat

 

[gotfire]

Part of my issue is time. I'm still working a full time night job as a shift manager at a local plant. I was cutting hay and selling fire wood before I bailed my father in law out of some bad times after a storm and gave him a place to stay. He wanted cows so I let him go for it. Set out a chunk of land and $10,000 a few years ago and now I have this.

He has sick family and took off for a week that turned into 2 weeks. I hope he will be home on the November 27 to take care of the cows. I'm learning tons working with him but I still don't know near what I should to deal with this some days. I still remember all the stuff from the days of the dairy. January 31, 09 are my last day of "shift work" and my first day as a true farmer.

I do know that I just have too much going on. It would be a lot better if it was warm out side or they were all ready on hay (witch will be this weekend). I'm still not thinking like a truer farmer but more as a plant manager on do it safe, do it right the first time, get it done, and send it out the door.

You are right that I need to get a bunch more cows to grow out to make the money on what I have sitting on the farm. It'll get rid of the silage; I have plenty of pasture to keep them on if the prices don't come back up right away.

 

[gotfire]

Well I just got off the phone with my boss and November 28 at 8:00 AM will be the end of my "plant" life. My boss told me that he knew that this was coming for the last 3 months but did not know when I was going to pull the plug. I have trained my replacement and don't know why I'm still there. I just got a phone call form him telling me he needs my notice back dated with in the next 5 hours and to fill out my time off sheet so I get the rest of the week off and to get my vacation set up for the rest of the year.

I want to thank all you'll that pushed me to do this that has responded to this thread (lol). I look forward to the help that everyone one that will help me in the when needed and I only hope to be able to pass on the knowledge that I have to someone that needs it once I learn and experience more.

Once I get back form the "plant" in a few hours I'll move the cows to pasture with some hay and run down to the stock yard and see what trends they have been seeing running through there yard.

Now the only real question is should I go in with wearing my nice office stuff or put on my farm junk, check some cow pies with my boots to see if they froze yet, and head to work in my farm truck after I sling a bit more mud on it?
Who is going to tell my wife that my last day of work is right around the corner and not down the road a few weeks?

 

[bigbull338]

man you sure do have a nice boss to let you quit your job early.my dads boss wasnt so nice about him quiting his job to start the dairy.my dad was gonna work from july till novan quit.an his boss knew this so he tryed to put my dad on a new machine at work.an my dad quickly told him to shove the job an finished out the week.

 

[gotfire]

Mid October I turned in my notice for January 31, 09. I have always been his "right hand man" as everyone called me. They brought someone in for me to train and he's been trained for a while and doing it fine with out my help. I have not done much this last month and don't plan on doing much more there. Well I have been doing a bunch of flirting and sleeping where ever I can find a spot.

When I called him I asked him if he minds if I burn 40 hours of personal time. He asked me if I was going to follow it with my vacation and I told him why not. I'm a short 31 hours short of making to the end of the year so he's making me work part of next week.

My whole thing is not switching my health insurance till the first of the year (taxes). I have a secondary policy for my family but will need to get a primary policy for next year.
I just hope I will be able to return to work next week after my wife is done with me. I might be living with the cows or the in-laws. The wife knows I'm off the rest of the weeks but she doesn't know that next week is it for me.

I'm only 30 with 10 years in the company. I'm not getting much but a party if anything. I know I will be missed; but I'm not leaving on a bad note. He told me that he would do everything he could to get me a job back at any time if farm life is not for me.