Spoiled Balage?

[mnbryant2001]

After running out of hay I purchased some Balage to give it a try. After opening it one bale is dry as hay. The ends are compost black and white mold as far as I could dig into the bale. The 2nd bale was wetter but smelled bad. Same white mold throughout. Would you feed it?

 

[AllForage]

Good baleage should have a sweet silage almost tobacco smell to me. I was warned by my contractor that red or blue mold is the most dangerous.

Would I feed it to my cows? Hells to the no!!

 

[branguscowgirl]

No, don't feed it.
I will feed bales that have a small amount of mold that they can eat around. But if they are very hungry you chance them eating the bad stuff.

 

[jerry27150]

if your silage smells like tobacco, it has been heat damaged

 

[branguscowgirl]

if your silage smells like tobacco, it has been heat damaged

That is what a vet told me also. "When it smells like tobacco it is borderline."

 

[AllForage]

if your silage smells like tobacco, it has been heat damaged

That is what a vet told me also. "When it smells like tobacco it is borderline."

Wrong there buckos, been tested for spores with none to count. Cows are doing great. I think it has a tobacco smell but I don't chew that nasty stuff so maybe I am off.

 

[Jogeephus]

The reason it smells like chewing tobacco is the heat caramelized the sugars in the hay. I had a whole cutting do that. Feed value dropped but the cows loved it. I guess it was something different.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

Were these end bales on a line wrapper?
The end bales are usually trash.

 

[AllForage]

The reason it smells like chewing tobacco is the heat caramelized the sugars in the hay. I had a whole cutting do that. Feed value dropped but the cows loved it. I guess it was something different.

All I can tell you is I had the baleage tested 60 days after wrapping along with the dry hay that was baled the next day off ajoining fields. Hay analysis came back exactly the same, 13% protein and the rest I forget off the top of my head. Had the mold spores count done too. Was baled with a mchale combo baler/wrapper so it was not sitting around.

The real lesson was I should had cured it out and baled it dry to save myself 3300 bucks!!!!

 

[TexasBred]

if your silage smells like tobacco, it has been heat damaged

That is what a vet told me also. "When it smells like tobacco it is borderline."

Wrong there buckos, been tested for spores with none to count. Cows are doing great. I think it has a tobacco smell but I don't chew that nasty stuff so maybe I am off.

Use to get a load of that "tobacco brown" alfalfa at the dairy occasionally....cows loved it and milk went up everytime.

 

[Dave]

A lesson I have learned is not to look at or smell haylage. It all looks and smells nasty but cows slurp it up and do great on it. A few years back a neighbor dairy farmer had a bunch of haylage that the plastic got torn on. He fed TMR and didn't want to mix those bales in. He sold them to me dirt cheap and he told me that I didn't have to pay for anything the cows didn't want to eat. Out of 100 bales there was only one they turned their noses up to. This stuff looked and smelled moldy and rotten. The cows fought over it. Slicked it up before they would touch the good dry hay they had available to them. And they did well on it. After that I figure there is no such thing as spoiled haylage. And there is no accounting for what a cow will eat.

 

[TexasBred]

A lesson I have learned is not to look at or smell haylage. It all looks and smells nasty but cows slurp it up and do great on it. A few years back a neighbor dairy farmer had a bunch of haylage that the plastic got torn on. He fed TMR and didn't want to mix those bales in. He sold them to me dirt cheap and he told me that I didn't have to pay for anything the cows didn't want to eat. Out of 100 bales there was only one they turned their noses up to. This stuff looked and smelled moldy and rotten. The cows fought over it. Slicked it up before they would touch the good dry hay they had available to them. And they did well on it. After that I figure there is no such thing as spoiled haylage. And there is no accounting for what a cow will eat.

Sounds like someone needs to explain that "mixing" is one of the great things about a TMR.

 

[Supa Dexta]

I've been making this stuff for over 20 yrs. I'd say the best stuff smells more like some sort of fruit juice. I just can't narrow it down to a specific type, but a sugary sweet smell, potent at times. But people smell things differently, so what may smell bad to some, smells sweet to others. Ask 5 people to smell the same bale, and they'll all describe it differently.

As for the stuff you are feeding, it wasn't sealed properly, nor was it the right moisture going in to begin with. I'd be taking it up with whoever you bought it from. Cows will eat some pretty rank bales, but you shouldn't be paying to feed that to them. Some white mold is fine, as even a well wrapped bale, where you use a bale squeeze, will sometimes leave a small pocket of air at the squeeze point, and mold there.

So yes, cows will eat some pretty poor stuff, and even act like they like it. But if you want to be serious about feed like a dairy farm is, you can get pretty particular about how its made and how to do it right. Mine is far from all perfect, but I do try my best rather than use the old phrase "well a beef cow will eat it"

Whether its a dairy cow, an athlete, or even an old beef cow > good food in = equals good results out.

And we know ourselves, a lot of the best tasting food isn't too great for us.

 

[Jogeephus]

The reason it smells like chewing tobacco is the heat caramelized the sugars in the hay. I had a whole cutting do that. Feed value dropped but the cows loved it. I guess it was something different.

All I can tell you is I had the baleage tested 60 days after wrapping along with the dry hay that was baled the next day off ajoining fields. Hay analysis came back exactly the same, 13% protein and the rest I forget off the top of my head. Had the mold spores count done too. Was baled with a mchale combo baler/wrapper so it was not sitting around.

The real lesson was I should had cured it out and baled it dry to save myself 3300 bucks!!!!

My apologies, I was addressing the subject of mold and its safety and was referring to caramelized hay and not fermented baleage itself. My balage always smells sweet like chewing tobacco but I also spray it with inoculate just before it goes in the baler. Only thing I don't like about it is the shear weight you have to contend with. Its hard on my equipment and hay rings and the occasional head of the impatient cow that sticks its head in the ring as the bale is dropped.

Why would you have thought the protein content would have been any different? I've always just viewed baleage as a last resort due to weather concerns.

 

[TexasBred]

I've been making this stuff for over 20 yrs. I'd say the best stuff smells more like some sort of fruit juice. I just can't narrow it down to a specific type, but a sugary sweet smell, potent at times. But people smell things differently, so what may smell bad to some, smells sweet to others. Ask 5 people to smell the same bale, and they'll all describe it differently.

As for the stuff you are feeding, it wasn't sealed properly, nor was it the right moisture going in to begin with. I'd be taking it up with whoever you bought it from. Cows will eat some pretty rank bales, but you shouldn't be paying to feed that to them. Some white mold is fine, as even a well wrapped bale, where you use a bale squeeze, will sometimes leave a small pocket of air at the squeeze point, and mold there.

So yes, cows will eat some pretty poor stuff, and even act like they like it. But if you want to be serious about feed like a dairy farm is, you can get pretty particular about how its made and how to do it right. Mine is far from all perfect, but I do try my best rather than use the old phrase "well a beef cow will eat it"

Whether its a dairy cow, an athlete, or even an old beef cow > good food in = equals good results out.

And we know ourselves, a lot of the best tasting food isn't too great for us.

Never smelled it in baleage but some silage will have more of a dill pickle smell. A good smell.

 

[regolith]

My apologies, I was addressing the subject of mold and its safety and was referring to caramelized hay and not fermented baleage itself. My balage always smells sweet like chewing tobacco but I also spray it with inoculate just before it goes in the baler. Only thing I don't like about it is the shear weight you have to contend with. Its hard on my equipment and hay rings and the occasional head of the impatient cow that sticks its head in the ring as the bale is dropped.

Why would you have thought the protein content would have been any different? I've always just viewed baleage as a last resort due to weather concerns.

baleage that was intended as baleage should be made from less mature grass than hay.
I doubt 'hay' that was wrapped because it was too wet would ensile well at all, so there wouldn't be much if any of the pickled silage smell.

 

[Jogeephus]

Regolith, we do it a little different and try to cut all every 28 days (on grass) but if the weather is not looking good we will cut the begin making baleage rather than trying to dry it and make hay. The reason this is done is to keep the cuttings on schedule and prevent it from getting rank and losing its feed quality. Can't always do it this way but this is the gist of what we strive for. Still end up growing some rank hay at times but wrapping helps us reduce the amount of filler hay we grow.

On millet, I will usually make baleage out of it because its so hard to dry and it doesn't store well in the open so wrapping makes sense. Cows love it but like I mentioned I hate feeding and handling it.