Wrapped grass silage/Wrapped green feed silage

[Angus Cattle Shower]

Has anyone ever tried this? If so, what is the difference?
We have some, and it is soooooooo great to smell that sweet smell of fresh feed.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

We have been feeding baleage for over 10 years. It's the only way we can put up our first cutting hay in decent condition. We try to put our 2nd cutting up dry bales.
We hire it done. It is put up in IN-LINE wrap. Meaning they are wrapped continuously in a line. Not "marshmellows" or "tubed".
Yes, it smells great. It is the best way to put up high quality hay. Whatever the feed value is when it is cut, that's about the same as when it gets fed. Baleage has a "cool" cure, unlike silage that heats during curing and destroys some of it's protein.
Even most of the dairymen around here have figured out a way to feed baleage. Cows milk great on baleage.
Did you buy yours?
Tom starts mowing in the morning, and about 11am Ron starts baling. We can put up about 100 - 150 - 4' bales/day. They only mow what we can put up that day & early the next. And you NEVER bale it unless you can wrap it - usually within an hour of baling. If they don't get wrapped - they will start to HEAT and that spoils the bale.
Our 4' bales weight about 1300# and usually about a 50-75% moisture. They say you don't want to bale less than a 50% moisture.
Cattle LOVE it!! They are better quality hay than my dry cows need, so I try to make sure they clean up everything before I feed them again. But once they calve, they get all they want.

 

[Angus Cattle Shower]

Yep thats what happens here. We rent the wrapper for a week, and get 5-6people going. Ours is also inline. Do you put it in a bale feeder? We blow ti with a bale processor.

 

[Beefy]

yeah we do that with wheat, oats, millet, and bermuda. I like the bermuda best. i think the cows prefer the millet. i hate the oats, smells like a wet dead dog died again on you and you cant get the smell off your hands.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Do you put it in a bale feeder?

Yes, we use the round bale feeders. We get the "bull" feeders with a skirt on the bottom. Extremely heavy, but really hold up, and they are taller so the cows don't pick the ring up while they eat. If they pick it up, they push it & stand on some of the hay - wasting it. I use the tractor front spear to move the feeders.

We're finally frozen - Yeah Now have to be careful for the frozen ruts - really hard on the front end of my tractor with a 1300# bale on it. I have a rear spear so I feed two bales at a time.

 

[dun]

I suppose it goes back to what cows get accustomed to as calves, but we've tried feeding sudan/sudex baleage and winter wheat baleage andthe cows wouldn't touch the stuff. Yet they'll eat WW hay like it's going out of style. Fed the baleage at the dairy and the cows went crazy for the stuff, but just pick at WW hay.
The dairy has one of those marshmallow wrappers and wraps around 90% of what he cuts.

dun

 

[J Baxter]

Dun,

What kind of yield did you get on your winter wheat when baling it?

JB

 

[J Baxter]

And at what stage did you bale?

 

[dun]

Early dough, don't recall the yeild. We quit doing it for ours and it all goes to the dairy now.

dun

 

[Angus Cattle Shower]

dun, who's in your avatar?

 

[dun]

Oldest grandaughter, taken 5-21-1980

dun

 

[Angus Cattle Shower]

1980! looks much newer! I mean younger! Oh you get the picture.

 

[cowspider]

anybody know what would happen if a horse got some bailage from the cow lot ?????

:cboy:

 

[dun]

From what I've seen at the dairy, nothing.

They alwasy store a lot of the baleage out in a pasturte with the horses. They just got a herd of longhorns and turned them in with the horses. The LH have gotten a real nack for using there horns to slit the baleage wrappers. They're getting fat and the horses are eating it and don;t seem any the worse for it.
But I wouldn;'t feed it to them as a normal diet.

dun

 

[cowspider]

thanks for the reply, i have a couple horses running the pasture with my cattle and they like to share feeders even though they have their own.

:cboy:

 

[dun]

As i said, I wouldn't feed it to them as a regular ration. Over the years I've heard too much about the fermentation process generating things that aren't supposed to be good for horses. That's all been anecdotal information, but so is the information about the horses at the dairy, but at least I've observed that.

dun

 

[DaleK]

We bale alfalfa at about 35% and wrap in a tubeline wrapper, feed one 4x4.5 bale a day to 80 Holsteins along with TMR. They love it but they don't get fed if I'm not home, I roll the bales out by hand alone but when I'm gone Dad and the kid who milks in my place can't roll them out between the two of them. Really have to put your butt into it to get them started.