Nutrient content - Silage bales vs dry hay

[.netDude]

Is there a difference? Up until this weekend I have been using haylage bales wrapped in a 'tube'. The cows eat this stuff like candy, and have not lost much, if any, body condition this winter. I couldn't make it though the snow to get to the 'tube' last weekend, so I started feeding dry hay. Is there a nutritional difference between dry and wet hay? If not, I'd choose dry hay whenever possible - much easier to handle. (didn't really have a choice since it rained almost every day last summer, or that's what it seemed like. So I contracted to have the bales wrapped wet).
I could attribute the non-loss of body condition to the silage bales, or the fact that I'm feeding the cows differently. In the past I used a bale ring or two that didn't let them all feed at once. I've changed that this year to a system where most can eat free choice at the same time.

[JeffNY]

Dry hay works well, and actually fills them faster. However, the key is to promote as much intake as possible. The more they eat, if beefers, the more weight they gain. Typically they feed dry hay to show stock, mostly because it ribs them out more, it fills them, and its the fiber that helps. I know of someone who milks, he feeds dry hay and grain only. His RHA is 23,000+. No BST as far as I know. But he is also a nutritionist, and does feed some of his cows 40+lbs a day of grain. If your milking, more fiber generally translates to higher butterfat.


You might actually see better conditioning with baleage bales, than dry, simply because of the nutritional value AND the fact they take in more.

Yes they are a pain to handle if you dont have the means, but I think they are worth the hassle.

Jeff

[agmantoo]

Yes, there is a huge difference between hay and baleage. The baleage is probably twice the protein of the hay. Additional, a hay feeding ring will allow a timid cow to starve. The aggressive cows may completely prevent the timid cow from ever eating. Feed should be provided to where all the animals have an opportunity to eat at once. That way when a boss cow forces a timid one away, the timid cow just moves to the space vacated by the boss cow. When I fed hay before going to year round grazing, I used a tractor implement that allowed me to transport and to unroll a round bale. I had almost no waste and all the cattle ate at once. The implement was rather cheap and it worked great.

[.netDude]

Thanks for the replies. An additional benefit to the way I'm feeding now, as opposed to the bale rings, is that I can put out enough hay for a week at a time, so I'm only starting my tractor on Saturdays. So, I guess the answer would be that both the feeding method, and the baleage contributed to their good body condition this year.
One thing I wanted to try next year is to stage the dry bales in the field and just move the fence weekly (bale grazing). Not really feasible to do this with silage bales.