kenny thomas
Well-known member
So more mess to clean up.
Starting Background Operation (Could use a little help)
- Thread starter Buddybacker
- Start date
RDFF
Well-known member
Yes. Precisely why I don't want to go there. I bought some "wrapped hay" on an auction once, and that pretty well convinced me. That plastic is way more difficult and bulky to deal with than the netwrap is.
kenny thomas
Well-known member
As easy as netwrap is I still hate it.
chevytaHOE5674
Well-known member
You wrap baleage so that it can be cut at optimal time when you don't have the weather for dry hay. Consider yourself lucky if you can get all your hay made when it's at its peak all put up dry.
For many areas of the country the only possibility to get the crop put up when it's prime is by wrapping.
RDFF
Well-known member
Yeah, wrapping SOUNDS like a great solution, no storage barn necessary to keep hay "perfect". But that's not quite the reality. If you wrap dry bales, at least if you wrap them before they've steeped out, they get a smeary slime on the inside of the plastic. The baleage bales will get this too. There's an "ideal" moisture level to get it right, if you're going to do it. Either they should be DRY... and steeped out, before wrapping, or in that 45-50% area. Wetter and they'll heat in the wrap and squat badly. Between 20-40%, they'll sweat and not ensile as fast as they need to, and you'll have spoilage (mold) in them.
Like Chevy says... it's hard to get it all the way dry in alot of the country... including here. Baleage (or making silage of any kind) can give you an opportunity to actually make some really excellent high quality forage, when you might not otherwise be able to. But I still prefer dry bales to anything. Might not say that if my own hay was pure alfalfa though... you automatically are losing an awful lot of leaves to the handling processes when making it dry. With grass not so much.
Like Chevy says... it's hard to get it all the way dry in alot of the country... including here. Baleage (or making silage of any kind) can give you an opportunity to actually make some really excellent high quality forage, when you might not otherwise be able to. But I still prefer dry bales to anything. Might not say that if my own hay was pure alfalfa though... you automatically are losing an awful lot of leaves to the handling processes when making it dry. With grass not so much.
midTN_Brangusman
Well-known member
I would recommend buying 20 or so head locally per week rather than truck loads at a time. Health would be a lot better. Do you have experience in backgrounding calves? I ask because unless you have had a train wreck its hard to understand, especially now with how much the calves are costing. Get with your local vet and get a health plan together on vaccines and antibiotics before you start buying. I would recommend buying 650 average lb bulls and selling 800 lb steers.
