bales vs clamp

Not too busy this evening so said id resurect this old chestnut. I'm attaching a video to further stirr things up:ban::sweat:


IMHO round silage bales are the feisty balls of satanism,,,,,,,,,, may they never darken our door here at the round bale less castle farm,,,, doesn't matter if they have string no on them or that pesky wrap it's still a right bastard to get off,, gets all over the platz , gets in your spreader etc etc,,,, big square silage bales are the real way ahead,,,

It's simple , yes you have to cut the strings but if u pick em up right and curt the right place at knots u can have the strings out NA be ther,,

There I've said it,,,,,
 
That's what gloves are for :Whistle2:

Lads with pits forget about having to get up And strip them down with tyres full of water and the sheet blowing around....

That's what roofs are for. :Whistle2:
I don't mind the work involved covering and opening a pit. If you plan it right there's very little work involved. Around here pit silage is costing around 100 euros an acre plus the vat depending on the draw. How much is silage costing a bale in machinery costs?
 
On average about 1 in 10, but it's easy enough to catch the left behind net with one of the prongs anyway. Prob split between 1300 and 1400 bales a year with it.
 
That's what roofs are for. :Whistle2:
I don't mind the work involved covering and opening a pit. If you plan it right there's very little work involved. Around here pit silage is costing around 100 euros an acre plus the vat depending on the draw. How much is silage costing a bale in machinery costs?

Isn't It hard to compare That when you'd Have different yields though? I can only talk about averages but at An average of 8 bales to The acre, It's coming in at around 10 euro a bale Inc VAT plus drawing.

That would be a mix of light paddocks And heavy first cut silage.
 
That's what roofs are for. :Whistle2:
I don't mind the work involved covering and opening a pit. If you plan it right there's very little work involved. Around here pit silage is costing around 100 euros an acre plus the vat depending on the draw. How much is silage costing a bale in machinery costs?

€133/ac, including plastic at 6 layers, farmer stacked the bales.
That’s just one example, I’m sure there are jobs costing more and less.
 
€133/ac, including plastic at 6 layers, farmer stacked the bales.
That’s just one example, I’m sure there are jobs costing more and less.
What bales per acre are you using to calculate that Liam?

At home, we are getting silage raked and baled at €5 inc vat. At 8 bales to the acre, that's €40.
Mowing ourselves comes in at €12 per acre.
Tedding ourselves comes in at €7 per acre.
6 layers of wrap came in at €3 per bale or €24 for 8 bales per acre.
Wrapping ourselves at €1 per bale. or €8 per acre
Drawing for wrapping and stacking averages €1 per bale or €8 per acre.
So €99 per bale of wilted silage.

We get a contractor in galway who charges €9 per bale to cut, mow and wrap.
Wrap costs €3 per bale.
So €96 per acre.

Similar costs unless I have left something out, but a lot more feeding per bale in the wilted silage.

Add in the advantage of being able to bale small or big amounts as suited, the ability to make bales even when the ground is pretty wet - bales are the obvious choice for us and many people around us. Over the past few years that we saw wet summers, lads around us that traditionally made pits have had to resort to bales to get their crops in.
But on the other side, if a lad was on good ground then a pit would be no. 1 in order to save on labour.
 
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Figures are on a job we did for another man.
2 cuts on over 40ac. 10.75bales/ac. More silage than Haylage.

Your figures may be relevant to your situation but not to the question @Peter asked which was what’s it costing per acre when using a contractor.

You have both mowing and wrapping priced much less than a contractor would charge.
Also we’ve had this argument on here before about the price you pay for plastic.
€3/bale you say for 6 layers, that’s about €55/roll?
Both myself and another member on here priced plastic in a place you mentioned previously we were both given a price the same as you mentioned you were buying it for, but plus vat.

Bales are very suitable to many farmers, the example above, the farmer would have to build a pit, do two cuts and still probably still end up making a paddock or two in bales.
Bales suit his system, where it works it works, equally a farmer set up for pit silage and doing bigger acres, it would hardly ever make sense to consider changing to bales.
 
7 bales to the acres is around the same price here as putting it into a pit at 4 layers of plastic.
Any lad we would be doing 12 bales plus to the acres is only cutting about 10-20 acres a year once and isn't set up for a self propelled outfit anyway.
Big switch to bales around here in the last 5 years most lads making around 500 a year then you have lads making 1500+
 
Figures are on a job we did for another man.
2 cuts on over 40ac. 10.75bales/ac. More silage than Haylage.

Your figures may be relevant to your situation but not to the question @Peter asked which was what’s it costing per acre when using a contractor.

You have both mowing and wrapping priced much less than a contractor would charge.
Also we’ve had this argument on here before about the price you pay for plastic.
€3/bale you say for 6 layers, that’s about €55/roll?
Both myself and another member on here priced plastic in a place you mentioned previously we were both given a price the same as you mentioned you were buying it for, but plus vat.

Bales are very suitable to many farmers, the example above, the farmer would have to build a pit, do two cuts and still probably still end up making a paddock or two in bales.
Bales suit his system, where it works it works, equally a farmer set up for pit silage and doing bigger acres, it would hardly ever make sense to consider changing to bales.

Yes, I have mowing and wrapping priced less than a contractor because the contractor gets a margin. I was putting them at cost to me.
This year's wrap was €75 per roll from a local merchant. That included Vat and recycling levy. It was giving 23 to 25 bales per roll at 6 layers which was €3 per bale.
Peter asked "How much is silage costing a bale in machinery costs?"
 
You seem to be getting a lot of bales from a roll of plastic . A standard roll of plastic here on a fusion well packed bale gets 29/30 bales wrapped at 4 layers .My baler man charges €9/bale incl. plastic ,I mow and ted out myself putting a cost on it €3 bale
the raking costs €1.25/bale .
haulage and stacking €3/bale
So at 8 bales /acre this would cost €16.25/bale in yard or €130/acre .
One of these dry bales would feed up to 20 cows ,the big problem with bales is you will have a lot of extra bales per acre if you do not cut in dry conditions or if you get a flood of rain before baling e.g I had a very heavy crop of first cut that got a flood of rain after cutting ,with more rain forecast i had nothing better to do only bale it up and had 18 bales per acre so this would have cost me €12 to bale and stack so this cost €216/acre plus mowing and raking!!!! Lucky if this 18 bale/acre had the same value as 9 dry bales/acre
 
You seem to be getting a lot of bales from a roll of plastic . A standard roll of plastic here on a fusion well packed bale gets 29/30 bales wrapped at 4 layers .My baler man charges €9/bale incl. plastic ,I mow and ted out myself putting a cost on it €3 bale
the raking costs €1.25/bale .
haulage and stacking €3/bale
So at 8 bales /acre this would cost €16.25/bale in yard or €130/acre .
One of these dry bales would feed up to 20 cows ,the big problem with bales is you will have a lot of extra bales per acre if you do not cut in dry conditions or if you get a flood of rain before baling e.g I had a very heavy crop of first cut that got a flood of rain after cutting ,with more rain forecast i had nothing better to do only bale it up and had 18 bales per acre so this would have cost me €12 to bale and stack so this cost €216/acre plus mowing and raking!!!! Lucky if this 18 bale/acre had the same value as 9 dry bales/acre
Rhino wrap. 35/36 bales per roll @ 4 layers.
 
On the number of bales to a roll . Any wrapper irrelevant of make that’s putting on plastic with 2 rolls will waste 2 to 3 bales per roll . Compared to a wrapper using a single roll to wrap the bales .
You seem to be getting a lot of bales from a roll of plastic . A standard roll of plastic here on a fusion well packed bale gets 29/30 bales wrapped at 4 layers .My baler man charges €9/bale incl. plastic ,I mow and ted out myself putting a cost on it €3 bale
the raking costs €1.25/bale .
haulage and stacking €3/bale
So at 8 bales /acre this would cost €16.25/bale in yard or €130/acre .
One of these dry bales would feed up to 20 cows ,the big problem with bales is you will have a lot of extra bales per acre if you do not cut in dry conditions or if you get a flood of rain before baling e.g I had a very heavy crop of first cut that got a flood of rain after cutting ,with more rain forecast i had nothing better to do only bale it up and had 18 bales per acre so this would have cost me €12 to bale and stack so this cost €216/acre plus mowing and raking!!!! Lucky if this 18 bale/acre had the same value as 9 dry bales/acre
 
Yes, I have mowing and wrapping priced less than a contractor because the contractor gets a margin. I was putting them at cost to me.
This year's wrap was €75 per roll from a local merchant. That included Vat and recycling levy. It was giving 23 to 25 bales per roll at 6 layers which was €3 per bale.
Peter asked "How much is silage costing a bale in machinery costs?"

Your correct, my mistake.
 
What bales per acre are you using to calculate that Liam?

At home, we are getting silage raked and baled at €5 inc vat. At 8 bales to the acre, that's €40.
Mowing ourselves comes in at €12 per acre.
Tedding ourselves comes in at €7 per acre.
6 layers of wrap came in at €3 per bale or €24 for 8 bales per acre.
Wrapping ourselves at €1 per bale. or €8 per acre
Drawing for wrapping and stacking averages €1 per bale or €8 per acre.
So €99 per bale of wilted silage.

We get a contractor in galway who charges €9 per bale to cut, mow and wrap.
Wrap costs €3 per bale.
So €96 per acre.

Similar costs unless I have left something out, but a lot more feeding per bale in the wilted silage.

Add in the advantage of being able to bale small or big amounts as suited, the ability to make bales even when the ground is pretty wet - bales are the obvious choice for us and many people around us. Over the past few years that we saw wet summers, lads around us that traditionally made pits have had to resort to bales to get their crops in.
But on the other side, if a lad was on good ground then a pit would be no. 1 in order to save on labour.
I think you are putting in a very small charge for drawing , wrapping and stacking unless your fields are next to the wrap/stack area. I don't know what system you have for moving them and get the impression you wrap at the stack but to load bales on to a trailer, shift them, unload them in such a way as to be able to wrap them, then handle them again to stack them has to be far more than €1 /bale.
 
I think you are putting in a very small charge for drawing , wrapping and stacking unless your fields are next to the wrap/stack area. I don't know what system you have for moving them and get the impression you wrap at the stack but to load bales on to a trailer, shift them, unload them in such a way as to be able to wrap them, then handle them again to stack them has to be far more than €1 /bale.
Half would be wrapped and stacked close to where they are baled. The rest would have some type of a draw which o suppose would add to cost.
 
I was talking to a man yesterday and the only pit silage he has made in the last few years was wholecrop barley . His justification for the bales was less waste as he fattens a lot of cattle in May and June when pits are hard to keep right . He now has his own wrapper baler and turners .
 
We do our own mowing here, we'd value it at €20/acre, don't see why you'd charge yourself less than anyone else when valuing yourself?? Contractors are not clearing €8/acre on mowing I can guarantee you that!!
We work pit silage for any decent cuts, but anything under 15 acres we use bales, and no matter what way you move around the figures, by the time you have it fed to the animals, the pit is cheaper. Think we made about 300 bales this year, and bought about another 100, they were handy when we were only buffer feeding the cows and the pit wasn't open, but when it came to feeding a good few of them, by god they take up some time to feed out, and we have a good way of handelling them.
 
We do our own mowing here, we'd value it at €20/acre, don't see why you'd charge yourself less than anyone else when valuing yourself?? Contractors are not clearing €8/acre on mowing I can guarantee you that!!
We work pit silage for any decent cuts, but anything under 15 acres we use bales, and no matter what way you move around the figures, by the time you have it fed to the animals, the pit is cheaper. Think we made about 300 bales this year, and bought about another 100, they were handy when we were only buffer feeding the cows and the pit wasn't open, but when it came to feeding a good few of them, by god they take up some time to feed out, and we have a good way of handelling them.

I agree. But I think there's a difference between what something costs you and what its value is to you. Cost is the amount of money you spend to produce it in time, diesel, depreciation etc. whereas value is what it's worth to you compared to if you had to buy it/pay for it in an open market. The bit between the 2 is a saving that can contribute to margin.
We're small and would only really be feeding 25 to 30 bales a week. While we don't ever put them all out at 1 time, there's no day that you wouldn't put out 8 to 10 bales in an hour if the stack was beside the shed. Drop them all first, cut the wrap off them all at the same time, pick up the bale and unwind the net, then split it and push it to the barrier. You have to have a good investment made for pit silage for both storage and feeding. But if you have the right set up and the right infrastructure, I don't doubt that there's nothing to beat the pit!
 
Find feeding bales here pretty straight forward, although numbers are small. Way I do it is cut the plastic off the ends of all the bales needed while still in stack, pick up bale and drive into shed, with bale a few feet off the ground, cut plastic and net with long armed hayknife, pull off plastic and net and put in separate heaps, scatter out bale with loader
 
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