Hay Alternative

[pointer_hunter]

I found an article that discusses making silage without chopping it up in replacement of hay stating that you get more protein for the animals. I’m curious if anyone else has tried this method. I would hate to spend all summer vacuum sealing my grass to find out that it all spoiled and be stuck buying hay in the middle of winter.

Vacuum Silage

[Tam319]

Are you talking haylage? We have wrapped round bales of hay and also round bales of green feed (oats) and the cows treat it like CANDY. It is a bit more work and expense of course, but it seems to be quite effective. We still fed hay when we did the haylage, but we cut it back and fed a bale of haylage at the same time.

[pointer_hunter]

The thought behind it is that each time you handle the hay it lowers the protein content. Instead of cutting, raking, drying and bailing or cutting, chopping, packing; you use a piece of equipment that cuts and blows the entire stem right into a trailer so the only protein you lose is at the cut point. Then you lay it on a tarp, run a septic pipe out from the middle of the pile and then fold the tarp over. Cover all edges with sand/sand bags to seal it, use a vacuum on the pipe to remove any air and then plug the pipe. When you are ready, unplug the pipe, remove the sand and unfold the tarp.

This would be used by itself instead of using along with hay. It should be as close to them foraging during summer as it can get.

[genebo]

I fed haylage last winter. It was 4x4 wrapped round bales that weighed a lot. 1900 lb. was the best guess. I had to handle them with a three point hitch bale spear. I broke and repaired the bale spear twice before I gave up and bought a heavier duty one.

I have now more than 11 Dexters at a time, so a bale of haylage lasted a long time. The problem was that they would eat it like crazy at first, but after 8 days they quit. It's like the haylage soured or something after that long out of the wrapping. I wasted about 25%-35% of each bale.

It worked a lot better for my neighbor, who fed 70 Angus. He fed them a bale each day and they cleaned it up, every bit.

I wish I could get some in 1/2 size bales. The cattle loved it and flourished on it.

Genebo
Paradise Farm

[sammyd]

This was discussed a while back but was probably pruned.

Looks like that method will take special machinery to get the proper cut, not a regular flail chopper, and a good face cutter to keep the pile from getting out of hand when feeding unless you have a grapple on your skidsteer.
And you need to make sure you have enough animals to keep it from spoiling once you open the pile to feed.
It sounds interesting but I would like to see the numbers comparing grass piles to hay silage in a bag or silo or even a bale.