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5 Posts
So ive been following the posts on Haytalk for awhile now and meant to make a profile and join the chat a while ago but didnt, this is my 4th season back in upstate New York after taking some time away from the farm to do some "other stuff" and its my first hay season "with the reigns in my hands" with that said, hello to everyone.
Im hoping somebody out there can offer me alittle advice on baleage. Its something Im not real familiar with because when I left the farm 10 years ago we still had dairy cows and were using a green chopper, wagons, silo and ground bags to do sileage and haylage. Anyways, we wrap baleage in tubes with an anderson, its our third year doing it and ive been told that 65% moisture is the highest you want. Problem is, last week I got alittle jumpy with getting the baleage on our land done and getting the wrapper over to do the neighbors and I wrapped bales one day with moisture content in the 76 percent (as the highest) range, moisture probe is questionable, but only a few percent either way. The entire cut, rake, bale process, happened in about 12 hours on an 80 degree day, it hadnt rained for 2 days previous, end result, we wrapped 100 of the 127 that we baled, at 100 I started to second guess myself and couldnt justify using wrap to wrap up the other 27 and still am second guessing myself. Needless to say, my first big screw up as the so called "boss".
My question is to anyone who has experience with baleage, what can I expect when I open that wrap? Should I put up another 100 insurance bales from what we have left to do of 1st cutting or second cut bales? We wrapped about 200 more over the next few days but the moisture was in high 50 low 60 ranges, so Im not worried about those. The 27 we left unwrapped became a disaster after the 2 hot weeks we had as I figured they would be, and we do purposly make some small square "mulch" hay for landscaping contracters but the 2 I talked to about those bales didnt want to mess with the big rounds, so, luckily I unloaded them at the garden center for a whopping 10 bucks a piece, not sure what the going rate is for mulch hay ugh. ANyways my biggest concern are the ones that got wrapped and what I should expect? Thanks in advance.
BTW- My uncle is still technically in charge, but is looking to fully retire in a "few" years, but he is still as new to this baleage process as I am and way more skeptical about it, if it were up to him, cabs wouldnt exist because a big enough hat is as good a sun shade as any and he farmed for 40 years without listening to music while working, despite him saying that the 50's ,60's and 70;s a.m country radio station is always cranked when I get in a tractor after him, oldschool, lol.
Im hoping somebody out there can offer me alittle advice on baleage. Its something Im not real familiar with because when I left the farm 10 years ago we still had dairy cows and were using a green chopper, wagons, silo and ground bags to do sileage and haylage. Anyways, we wrap baleage in tubes with an anderson, its our third year doing it and ive been told that 65% moisture is the highest you want. Problem is, last week I got alittle jumpy with getting the baleage on our land done and getting the wrapper over to do the neighbors and I wrapped bales one day with moisture content in the 76 percent (as the highest) range, moisture probe is questionable, but only a few percent either way. The entire cut, rake, bale process, happened in about 12 hours on an 80 degree day, it hadnt rained for 2 days previous, end result, we wrapped 100 of the 127 that we baled, at 100 I started to second guess myself and couldnt justify using wrap to wrap up the other 27 and still am second guessing myself. Needless to say, my first big screw up as the so called "boss".
My question is to anyone who has experience with baleage, what can I expect when I open that wrap? Should I put up another 100 insurance bales from what we have left to do of 1st cutting or second cut bales? We wrapped about 200 more over the next few days but the moisture was in high 50 low 60 ranges, so Im not worried about those. The 27 we left unwrapped became a disaster after the 2 hot weeks we had as I figured they would be, and we do purposly make some small square "mulch" hay for landscaping contracters but the 2 I talked to about those bales didnt want to mess with the big rounds, so, luckily I unloaded them at the garden center for a whopping 10 bucks a piece, not sure what the going rate is for mulch hay ugh. ANyways my biggest concern are the ones that got wrapped and what I should expect? Thanks in advance.
BTW- My uncle is still technically in charge, but is looking to fully retire in a "few" years, but he is still as new to this baleage process as I am and way more skeptical about it, if it were up to him, cabs wouldnt exist because a big enough hat is as good a sun shade as any and he farmed for 40 years without listening to music while working, despite him saying that the 50's ,60's and 70;s a.m country radio station is always cranked when I get in a tractor after him, oldschool, lol.
