Silage - how are you fixed?

muckymanor

Well-Known Member
Have ye much left and will it see you through?

We got 8 acres zero grazed from mid January to mid February and I recon that it saved us 25 to 30 bales of silage. I think it was a smart move as ground got a lot wetter just as we cut the last of it. A good few of the younger cattle have gone to grass this last 3 weeks, and I calculate that we have enough left to feed what's inside, for the next 4 weeks. That should see us safe, but I'd like to get the rest of the younger animals off and have enough silage left for to keep in any cows that are close to calving until they calve.
 
"Much got much needed"

I look to have a fair amount probably 1000t or so,being housed 365 means I need it,going to use the last bucket of fodder beet tonight,1st winter I've ever used it and will be using it again,milk quality has been excellent and the cows love it.
grow your own:Thumbp2:half the price

i got about 2.5 to 3 weeks of clamp here and a pile of bales
 
Got about 2 weeks left but will push out more cattle next week if the weather suits which should stretch the remainder into 10th April or so.
 
Plenty silage here,No big run on silage here in the west, was gonna have have 40 bales left over that were two years old. Was reseeded grass cut the last week of may with extra plastic stuck them up on donedeal for 20 euro and didn't have one call in 3 weeks. A neighbour took them since
 
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"Much got much needed"

I look to have a fair amount probably 1000t or so,being housed 365 means I need it,going to use the last bucket of fodder beet tonight,1st winter I've ever used it and will be using it again,milk quality has been excellent and the cows love it.

The beets all nearly run out here. The change in the weather led to a increase in demand and my supplier ran out. I got a load off another man but he is running tight too. I'm feeding very little silage to the cattle ATM. I bought some brewers grains and some alfalfa and feeding this to the fat cattle.
 
The beets all nearly run out here. The change in the weather led to a increase in demand and my supplier ran out. I got a load off another man but he is running tight too. I'm feeding very little silage to the cattle ATM. I bought some brewers grains and some alfalfa and feeding this to the fat cattle.

The sheep lads wont have any beet this time,all the dairy boys had it.
 
For once I'm in a good position on silage. End of April will have most of the feeding cattle killed and the stores will be out on grass whenever the weather settles down in the near future. At a minimum I always aim to have enough silage to last to mid April and I've not been wrong to many times in having good stocks of silage. Keep the pits full is my motto.
 
Plenty left but surprised how many of our customers were on the phone to see if there is any bales spare maybe it's just the wet week that has them looking for them just in case
 
The beets all nearly run out here. The change in the weather led to a increase in demand and my supplier ran out. I got a load off another man but he is running tight too. I'm feeding very little silage to the cattle ATM. I bought some brewers grains and some alfalfa and feeding this to the fat cattle.

Glanbia alfalfa Peter? How are you finding it? Is it very dry stuff?
 
It's early days with it but so far so good. The bales are very heavy and very dry. Seems to be filling them up well.
Was half thinking of getting some seen as they are now trying to give it away. We aren't to bad on silage, tight but ok was going to get some to try leave a bench of silage there to help build stocks again
 
Was able to stretch my stocks enough down to the last few bales but don't think ill be using them plan to go back on grass today or tomorrow depending in the ground conditions have a lot of cover to gaze might bale some
 
Was half thinking of getting some seen as they are now trying to give it away. We aren't to bad on silage, tight but ok was going to get some to try leave a bench of silage there to help build stocks again

I'm getting on well with it. Theres a lot of stuff in every bale and it's mixing in well with the feed. I was giving it to the fat cattle but im giving it to the store cattle now and it's dropped the silage needed by half. Here's the fat cattle mix
IMG_20190316_152111.jpg
 
I'm getting on well with it. Theres a lot of stuff in every bale and it's mixing in well with the feed. I was giving it to the fat cattle but im giving it to the store cattle now and it's dropped the silage needed by half. Here's the fat cattle mix
View attachment 64073
Cool thanks for that. Was afraid by putting in the alfalfa and cutting down on silage that would lead to ruman problems
 
I'm getting on well with it. Theres a lot of stuff in every bale and it's mixing in well with the feed. I was giving it to the fat cattle but im giving it to the store cattle now and it's dropped the silage needed by half. Here's the fat cattle mix
View attachment 64073

Would you condiser it better value than an average quality round bale at 25
 
i got some alfalfa here for calves and i was very happy with it, i was trying to work out how many bales of hay would be in one 800 kg bale so i weighed a bale of hay today, the hay weighed 280 kgs 4x4 welger bale so at that its costing around 60 euroes a bale or is the alfalfa a much better feed ?
 
Would you condiser it better value than an average quality round bale at 25

Well it's less work feeding them as it doesn't take as long to mix them compared to the silage so I'm saving an hour a day feeding ATM. There's no plastic or net to take off and dispose of. I can't really compare the two on price as their different dry matters but I do know that there's a lot of work and expense feeding out baled silage for what return they give you.
 
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