Anyone ever bale corn stalks

[LibertyWool]

Has anyone ever small square baled corn stalks? Info I was able to find was on round baling them. There is a sweet corn field near by and I was wondering if I could just bale it with my square baler or does it have to be chopped first? I have an older New Holland baller. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[bruce2288]

If the field was hand harvested i think you would have to mow or shred the field. I round bale cornstalks after harvest with a combine and raking.

[francismilker]

Works if you use a mower with condition to cut down. If you don't crimp it, it doesn't keep and dry well.

[LibertyWool]

Thanks for the info. How long does it take to dry down when using a conditioner? I was thinking of waiting until it had 15%-20% moisture before mowing, but by then it would have lost a lot nutritional value? Another thought I had was to take the rear guard off my rotary cutter and mow it that way.

[fordson major]

neighbor tried this, wore the baler baddly and the resulting bales were poor bedding. they used a flail mower and tried to dry the material down, took a week of dry weather.

[Ken Scharabok]

Two years ago one of the field I rented out had such a poor yield the guy didn't combine it. Said I could have it. One neighbor cut part of it with a mower/conditioner and another part of it with one of those cuttings which hangs off the side but has rounded cutting blades on it. Then round baled. Sold about half and used the other half myself on a area which needed some help. Cattle ate maybe half, leaving the rest to eventually become soil.

On the area which was cut with the mower/conditioner it either knocked off ears or they came out mostly cob. Other cutter left ears.

I really couldn't tell the difference between the two cutters as far as cattle preference. Got them through the winter when there just wasn't much hay available.

Biggest problem I had was a bull playing with them like a large soccor ball. He put two in a ditch and one in the pond. I have a flatbed truck with hydraulic arms to move round bales. Finally learn to just set the bale on the ground still held by the arms. When he was through scratching on it or butting it around I'd take the arms off it.

[Farm 36]

Baling corn stalkes is very hard on machinery.They do beat nothing but not by much