Triticale hay

[Dave]

Hay is running short and pasture is running late or hard to find because of the fires last year. I had to start feeding Trit hay today. It looks awfully stemmy and not much green. But plenty of grain on it. B's hired man who spends his days feeding cows said the cows seem to clean it up good. I have been feeding a bale and half of grass hay. The plan is to feed a bale of Trit and half a bale of alfalfa. Teh same thing the next day. Then 2 days of just the Trit and then back the trit and alfalfa for 2 days.
It is at least 2 weeks until we can go to grass over by Baker. On Sunday we had a pasture over in Idaho agreed on. Figure we would be branding calves and hauling them on Wednesday or Thursday. Then on Monday the landowner sent a text saying he rented it to someone else. I guess we didn't want to do business with him.

 

[SBMF 2015]

We chop it into silage. Never seen anyone dry bale it.

 

[Dave]

We chop it into silage. Never seen anyone dry bale it.

Over on the coast what little of it was raised was chopped. I have seen a lot of it advertised as hay over here but never fed it before.

 

[Hogfarmer10]

Lots of folks in my area bale it for dry hay. Cows seem to do pretty well on it. My neighbor plants triticale following soybeans. It probably makes up 80%-85% of his total hay crop.

 

[cowman82]

I didn't know you could dry bale it either.

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

Captain Kirk on Star Trek had trouble with triticale.




Oh . . . . That was tribbles.

 

[uplandnut]

Sorry to hear you lost a pasture you thought you just gained, hate it when people do that. I would imagine any grass is in high demand after the fires last year. Nice of him to do the cowardly thing, and text you instead of calling you to let you know.

 

[Silver]

I lost half my grass this year so I have an idea how it feels to have the rug pulled out from under you.

 

[jltrent]

Dave, I hope your grass starts growing soon. We so far have had one of the best Springs I can remember. We have had warm temperatures and enough rain. I have pasture in places about knee high and my hay fields are looking good.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

Captain Kirk on Star Trek had trouble with triticale.

View attachment 57388
View attachment 57387

Oh . . . . That was tribbles.

Maybe he should have fed triticale to the tribbles?

 

[farmerjan]

We dry bale sorghum-sudan for hay here. Try to not have to wrap it although it makes good baleage. Cows really like it dry baled, and as baleage, but why wrap it if we can get by without the added expense. Most dairy farmers chop the triticale for feed. It makes a good feed for them.

 

[CowboyRam]

We dry bale sorghum-sudan for hay here. Try to not have to wrap it although it makes good baleage. Cows really like it dry baled, and as baleage, but why wrap it if we can get by without the added expense. Most dairy farmers chop the triticale for feed. It makes a good feed for them.

How is the dry down time with it. I would think it would take longer to dry.

 

[greybeard]

Maybe he should have fed triticale to the tribbles?

I am old but have been blessed with a long memory and, an affinity for old TV shows


That was The Trouble With the Tribbles,...they got into the quadrotriticale that was cargo for a famine stricken 'Sherman's Planet. ' (quadro because it was bio altered grain that had 4 lobes/kernel)

(The grain in question was further altered by a Klingon agent so it would have no nutritional value, and thus, the tribbles were eating themselves to death)

The famous last line of that episode I will always remember.
"I beamed all the tribbles over to the Klingon ship where they'll be no tribble at all"

(Klingons feared Tribbles)

They reproduce at the rate of 4-10 young every 12 hours/...... and, each asexual tribble is born pregnant...their sole purpose is to reproduce.
There was a realbeer from a micro brewery named after the grain.

tribbles...Like some people I know today..........
"They remind me of the lilies of the field. They toil not, neither do they spin. But they seem to eat a great deal. I see no practical use for them.:"
Spock

 

[crossbreed]

We have used triticale for our haying the last 5 years. Very good luck with it if we bale in May and feed that winter. It does seem to lose a lot of quality if we don't get it fed out the first winter though. As you said, lot of stems if we don't get it baled on time. For a winter grazing we buy a mix of triticale, rye and wheat that each seem to come on at a different time and if we have a good spring we section some of that off and bale it to. Seems to stay a little better.

 

[farmerjan]

How is the dry down time with it. I would think it would take longer to dry.

It does take longer to dry. We try to watch the weather and look for no rain in the forecast and NO humidity... doesn't always work but last year we had very low humidity and alot of breeze/wind conditions... And I tedded it out mid-late day, 2 days after it was cut so good and dry on top to start...
It is more a matter of catching the weather right... It doesn't dry worth a D@%N when we have high humidity... But when you can get it right it is nice.

Like @crossbreed said, the quality suffers if kept too long... yet we fed some that was "black looking" ... figuring they could eat what they wanted and waste the rest... and they seemed to want that more than what we felt was "good hay".... go figure...
We had planted wheat for a cover crop and harvested it, it does not keep real good but the cows really liked it too... all black and crappy looking on the outside... can't account for tastes...

 

[greybeard]

we fed some that was "black looking" ... figuring they could eat what they wanted and waste the rest... and they seemed to want that more than what we felt was "good hay"....

I believe I remember Texasbred explaining that slightly 'turned' (molded) hay had some sweetness to it that came from the black stuff, which I took to mean fermentation.

 

[Dave]

Bale I fed yesterday looked brown in the middle. It smelled like tobacco. Cows slicked up the tobacco smelling middle of the bale and just picked a little from the 2 flakes on each end of the bale. It looks odd in the field. A couple of clumps of hay, then the ground swept clean for a couple hundred feet, and then a couple more clumps.

 

[Dave]

This is a picture of what I talked about a week ago. There is the hay they didn't clean up and out there a ways is more. Everything between was slicked up. The second picture is a bale like I talked about. They will darn sure clean up that brown part in the middle. I don't know why but that is how it is working. Only 3 more days of feeding. Saturday morning the calves get branded and everyone gets hauled to summer camp.

 

[CowboyRam]

This is a picture of what I talked about a week ago. There is the hay they didn't clean up and out there a ways is more. Everything between was slicked up. The second picture is a bale like I talked about. They will darn sure clean up that brown part in the middle. I don't know why but that is how it is working. Only 3 more days of feeding. Saturday morning the calves get branded and everyone gets hauled to summer camp.


View attachment 57765View attachment 57766

Probably it has caramelized due to the heat. I think it tastes sweet to them.

 

[Big Creek]

This is a picture of what I talked about a week ago. There is the hay they didn't clean up and out there a ways is more. Everything between was slicked up. The second picture is a bale like I talked about. They will darn sure clean up that brown part in the middle. I don't know why but that is how it is working. Only 3 more days of feeding. Saturday morning the calves get branded and everyone gets hauled to summer camp.


View attachment 57765View attachment 57766

I haven't been to summer camp in years, got room for one more?