Price of round bales

[Bog Man]

The Vikings spent all their time making hay and relatively few of them went off pillaging monastery,s . They even made hay when they colonised Greenland and is probably why they settled in Wexford as it is easy to make hay in the sunny south east . After a bad summer they would calculate how much hay they had saved and how many cattle they had . They would butcher the surplus cattle and preserve the meat by treating with salt or smoking it .
Modern farmers should do the same and should cull surplus old cows and sell off animals that they have not fodder for . They could even buy back younger stock that would not need as much fodder . The world is awash with cheap grain but I hear Irish barley will be all bought by Christmas . Stock numbers are high and there are a lot of extra dairy cows in the country that will suffer badly if there is a late wet spring . It is a joke how little silage dairy farmers are making .

 

[Cork]

The Vikings spent all their time making hay and relatively few of them went off pillaging monastery,s . They even made hay when they colonised Greenland and is probably why they settled in Wexford as it is easy to make hay in the sunny south east . After a bad summer they would calculate how much hay they had saved and how many cattle they had . They would butcher the surplus cattle and preserve the meat by treating with salt or smoking it .
Modern farmers should do the same and should cull surplus old cows and sell off animals that they have not fodder for . They could even buy back younger stock that would not need as much fodder . The world is awash with cheap grain but I hear Irish barley will be all bought by Christmas . Stock numbers are high and there are a lot of extra dairy cows in the country that will suffer badly if there is a late wet spring . It is a joke how little silage dairy farmers are making .

Good silage is money in the bank.

It’ll be ironic if there’s a fodder crisis following the Year of the Grass.
I thought the country was awash with grass experts?

https://www.agriculture.gov.ie/farmingsectors/yearofsustainablegrassland/

 

[Claas Grass]

Stock numbers are high and there are a lot of extra dairy cows in the country that will suffer badly if there is a late wet spring . It is a joke how little silage dairy farmers are making .

This is something I always say about our area, we pick up a modest amount of acres but when you work out how many mouths the silage is feeding we really should be picking up a lot more, we are cutting silage in places that are still cutting the same amount as when they had 25% less cows, they hope to graze from Feb to Dec it's a race to see who gets to let them out first even when there isn't much of a grass cover, they get a grazing next there's nothing coming back, rather than feed on a little bit longer and let it bulk up, any year there's a fodder shortage everyone around us is in the sh1t as nobody has banked up silage, they're always relying on the fact that we are on very dry ground and that they will be able to let them off. That's how I see it anyway, another thing I can never understand around here is lads don't empty their tanks completely in October and then they are crying about having full tanks in January after missing the boat back in the Autumn :scratchhead:

 

[Cork]

This is something I always say about our area, we pick up a modest amount of acres but when you work out how many mouths the silage is feeding we really should be picking up a lot more, we are cutting silage in places that are still cutting the same amount as when they had 25% less cows, they hope to graze from Feb to Dec it's a race to see who gets to let them out first even when there isn't much of a grass cover, they get a grazing next there's nothing coming back, rather than feed on a little bit longer and let it bulk up, any year there's a fodder shortage everyone around us is in the sh1t as nobody has banked up silage, they're always relying on the fact that we are on very dry ground and that they will be able to let them off. That's how I see it anyway, another thing I can never understand around here is lads don't empty their tanks completely in October and then they are crying about having full tanks in January after missing the boat back in the Autumn :scratchhead:

As far as I can see, a lot of this race to get animals out is Teagasc driven based on trials and economic models.

I’m sure the economics stack up on a spreadsheet and when based on average weather conditions.
I’ve seen the same advisers recommending urea only for making grass grow (P,K & S don’t seem to be on the radar).
Cows out part time in early spring while trying to manage calving appears to me (an outsider) like a good way to make yourself old.
Feeding anything besides grass (god forbid grain!) seems to be sinful too.

I’m just a lazy tillage man though.

 

[mixed fleet]

As far as I can see, a lot of this race to get animals out is Teagasc driven based on trials and economic models.

I’m sure the economics stack up on a spreadsheet and when based on average weather conditions.
I’ve seen the same advisers recommending urea only for making grass grow (P,K & S don’t seem to be on the radar).
Cows out part time in early spring while trying to manage calving appears to me (an outsider) like a good way to make yourself old.
Feeding anything besides grass (god forbid grain!) seems to be sinful too.

I’m just a lazy tillage man though.

Nothing lifts milk solids like grass even bad quality grass.
Yes it's hardship juggling cow's on/off inside/outside but you will see the results instantly.
Also cow health is much better.
I'm well North on heavy land but still I'll make every effort (weather permitting) to get them out even for a few hours from 1st Mar onwards.

 

[headcase]

As far as I can see, a lot of this race to get animals out is Teagasc driven based on trials and economic models.

I’m sure the economics stack up on a spreadsheet and when based on average weather conditions.
I’ve seen the same advisers recommending urea only for making grass grow (P,K & S don’t seem to be on the radar).
Cows out part time in early spring while trying to manage calving appears to me (an outsider) like a good way to make yourself old.
Feeding anything besides grass (god forbid grain!) seems to be sinful too.

I’m just a lazy tillage man though.

Would there be lots of slurry keeping p and k up

 

[Cork]

Would there be lots of slurry keeping p and k up

Some slurry that would help a bit for K but it wouldn’t have much P as feeding grain is Verboten.
A lot of the slurry would go on the silage ground.

 

[lough]

I rang the IFA and donated 20 bales of excellent chopped first crop June silage about 6 weeks ago, never heard a word since and they haven't been collected either! Thought they were actively looking for fodder for the north and West after Ophelia...
MF30

It wasn't storm Ophelia that did the damage, by the time it reached this far it was just a strong wind, I have seen storms far worse and no word about them on the forecast or the news. It was the 22nd August that did the damage in Inishowen that they are probably looking for the silage for, It started raining that day in South Donegal about 12 midday and it moved north and didn't stop until after 11pm in Inishowen, and the same in parts of Tyrone and Derry. I never seen rain like it before, it would be light for five minutes and then heavy for ten minutes, and the light rain was like one of them really heavy down pours you get in the summer. It has been raining non stop since the last week of July and there have only been to or three times that it has been dry for two days in a row.
You don't realize how lucky you have it in the Southern half, I was at Country Crest on Sunday and couldn't believe how dry the carpark was, and bogman has photos up showing the tractor and trailer in the field and not a mark
Up until the end of July we had one of the best summers in a long time, just the right amount of rain and heat, we had one of the best potato crops this year

It will be all wanted up there this winter. Things are in a bad way in the northern part of the country. I'm following the farm flix Snapchat story and according to that they only finished cutting silage about ten days ago up there. I'm surprised that it hasn't been mentioned much on the forum here.

 

[MF30]

It wasn't storm Ophelia that did the damage, by the time it reached this far it was just a strong wind, I have seen storms far worse and no word about them on the forecast or the news. It was the 22nd August that did the damage in Inishowen that they are probably looking for the silage for, It started raining that day in South Donegal about 12 midday and it moved north and didn't stop until after 11pm in Inishowen, and the same in parts of Tyrone and Derry. I never seen rain like it before, it would be light for five minutes and then heavy for ten minutes, and the light rain was like one of them really heavy down pours you get in the summer. It has been raining non stop since the last week of July and there have only been to or three times that it has been dry for two days in a row.
You don't realize how lucky you have it in the Southern half, I was at Country Crest on Sunday and couldn't believe how dry the carpark was, and bogman has photos up showing the tractor and trailer in the field and not a mark
Up until the end of July we had one of the best summers in a long time, just the right amount of rain and heat, we had one of the best potato crops this year

I agree about the huge weather variation between North and South; I consider myself lucky to be farming in a drier part of the country and feel sorry for those caught out unable to make hay or silage in wetter parts hence why I offered the silage. It must be so demoralising to see day after day of rain hammering your crops. I waited three weeks later than normal this year for an opportunity to drill winter barley, yet that doesn't even register on the scale of what the lads further up the country had to do like having to abandon some of the harvest and losing straw.
Just wondering why the silage hasn't been taken yet, I'd hate to have to turn around next April if it's a late spring and need it myself! I'd sooner it was gone for that reason.
MF30

 

[Mf 7715]

Looking at the price of bales today they seem to be going the same way as straw prices. It's v early in the year to be asking 50 for bales.

https://www.donedeal.ie/farmproduce-for-sale/haylage-bales/19287461

 

[maddmaxx]

To be fair it's not profiteering when yields are so bad. My cost per bale is gone up 50% this year. Same amount of land and inputs to make just under 1000 this year as just over 1500 last year. Was hoping for 350 off 45 acres of second cut but looking increasingly unlikely

 

[Tim818]

I've about half the fodder of last year, at the minute there is enough feed for about 10wks (that was after buying in 15ac 1st cut). Glanbias Alfalfa hay 2months ago I was thinking it was shocking bad value but afew bales now wouldn't be the worst idea to help stretch out what fodder I do have. Its gonna be an expensive winter no matter what.

 

[Ozzy Scott]

I've about half the fodder of last year, at the minute there is enough feed for about 10wks (that was after buying in 15ac 1st cut). Glanbias Alfalfa hay 2months ago I was thinking it was shocking bad value but afew bales now wouldn't be the worst idea to help stretch out what fodder I do have. Its gonna be an expensive winter no matter what.

I wouldnt be worried if I had 70days forage feeding in the yard. Easy bulk this up with grains for a maintenance diet, key being not to let the condition score slip during the autumn

 

[6600]

I wouldnt be worried if I had 70days forage feeding in the yard. Easy bulk this up with grains for a maintenance diet, key being not to let the condition score slip during the autumn

It's easy say that but what do you do when cows calve and need to produce milk or you need to finish animals. Maintenance alone is not going to achieve anything but a yard full of passengers.

 

[Ozzy Scott]

It's easy say that but what do you do when cows calve and need to produce milk or you need to finish animals. Maintenance alone is not going to achieve anything but a yard full of passengers.

maintenance until the cow calves obviously, then your going to have to up the grain in the diet again. Similarily if its a yard of finishing cattle they go on adlib meal and as little forage as possible. I detest grain diets but needs are a must this year if people are short of forage.

 

[limerick man]

This is how I see it and if I need to be corrected fair enough.
Milking cows would work on up to 60% meals, going higher it gets trickier. If eating 10kg dm 6 would be meal and 4 forage. If eating 20kg dm 12 meal and 8 forage.
Dry stock would go ablib up to 90% meal.
Dry cows would be the trickiest as you don't want them to get too fat. Lower quality silage, hay, or straw and 3 to 4 kg of meal to keep them in the right condition.
As for the meal the more ingredients you have in it the better to stop them from getting stomach upsets. 3 way mix 4 way mix etc

 

[jpt]

Its gonna be an expensive winter no matter what.

So do we buy our way out of it,or cull our way out of it?

 

[Blackwater boy]

So do we buy our way out of it,or cull our way out of it?

The million dollar question.
The reality is that on a lot of farms it is not physically possible to make up the deficit now by ones self so either source and try sort out something now for the winter or be prepared to cull end of. No point running out 1st week of feb and trying to buy as it will just not be there. Make a plan ASAP is my opinion or else half the country is goosed

 

[Tim818]

There is still half of the years worth of milk cheques to come in here (even the Dec milk cheque last yr was 17k here with the late spring calvers knocking out high solids milk) , that alongside piss poor cull cow prices, I'm going to keep up the output for as long as I can, with the hope that we can graze into Dec when the rain comes. Hulls at 200e/ton isn't the end of the world once we can keep up the supply. It is all a risk tho, what the Fook do we do if we get a March anything at all like this year gone?

 

[nashmach]

The million dollar question.
The reality is that on a lot of farms it is not physically possible to make up the deficit now by ones self so either source and try sort out something now for the winter or be prepared to cull end of. No point running out 1st week of feb and trying to buy as it will just not be there. Make a plan ASAP is my opinion or else half the country is goosed

Just to add I think this year also proves that there is little point in planning on having stock out in February to plenty of grass just because it has been done in 7 out of the last 10 years. A buffer needs to be built in to that plan.