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I've never done the direct cut grass silage myself but I have read about it in the Grassfarmer and several graziers in SE MN were experimenting with it. They were using a flail chopper, dumping it in piles, covering with plastic and then using a vacuum pump to remove the air. The people that I know that have tried it found it too time consuming. The flail choppers available didntn' have the capacity to cover a large amount of acres. Here's an article that explains the process: http://articles.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HEK/is_2_18/ai_98441868
Ross, I think you are talking about dry matter percentage rather than percentage of moisture. http://www.dasc.vt.edu/jones/Silo_ seepage.htm
I've put up a few thousand round bales as baleage/haylage/silage. We started out with an Vermeer individual wrapper and went very quickly to a Tubeline inline wrapper. We've baled from 40% moisture to 75% moisture but tried to shoot for 50%. When you get up to 75% and higher the bales get slimy and have a 'pickle' smell to them but the cows still loved it. The nice thing about baleage was there was NO waste, the cows licked it up like candy.
John, the main advantage in my opinion of haylage is being able to get the hay put up without getting it spoiled by rain. But, you will have to get set up to handle it. If you have a silo that may be an option. The downside to silos are maintaining a silo unloader and, if you are in the frozen north, the haylage will freeze to the walls during cold spells and you have to chip it off, great fun at -30F.
You could put it in a pile. The downside to a pile is there will be more spoilage, when you start feeding it you have to use enough off the face every day to keep it from spoiling, and if it gets cold it can freeze too solid to feed. If you don't have a good solid pad to put the pile on mud can also be a problem. Like said above you have to be careful of the plastic covering to make sure it doesn't get holes in it.
Baleage, or wrapping round or square bales in plastic is another way to go. The downsides are plastic costs and disposal, and make sure you don't make the bales too large, the higher the moisture the heavier they are! We were makeing 4x4 rounds and when the moisture got up to 70% it would make the rear end of our loader float, it's rated at 2000lb lift. A neighbor put up some 4x5 rounds as an experiment and couldn't pick them up with his JD 4020.
Ross, I think you are talking about dry matter percentage rather than percentage of moisture. http://www.dasc.vt.edu/jones/Silo_ seepage.htm
I've put up a few thousand round bales as baleage/haylage/silage. We started out with an Vermeer individual wrapper and went very quickly to a Tubeline inline wrapper. We've baled from 40% moisture to 75% moisture but tried to shoot for 50%. When you get up to 75% and higher the bales get slimy and have a 'pickle' smell to them but the cows still loved it. The nice thing about baleage was there was NO waste, the cows licked it up like candy.
John, the main advantage in my opinion of haylage is being able to get the hay put up without getting it spoiled by rain. But, you will have to get set up to handle it. If you have a silo that may be an option. The downside to silos are maintaining a silo unloader and, if you are in the frozen north, the haylage will freeze to the walls during cold spells and you have to chip it off, great fun at -30F.
You could put it in a pile. The downside to a pile is there will be more spoilage, when you start feeding it you have to use enough off the face every day to keep it from spoiling, and if it gets cold it can freeze too solid to feed. If you don't have a good solid pad to put the pile on mud can also be a problem. Like said above you have to be careful of the plastic covering to make sure it doesn't get holes in it.
Baleage, or wrapping round or square bales in plastic is another way to go. The downsides are plastic costs and disposal, and make sure you don't make the bales too large, the higher the moisture the heavier they are! We were makeing 4x4 rounds and when the moisture got up to 70% it would make the rear end of our loader float, it's rated at 2000lb lift. A neighbor put up some 4x5 rounds as an experiment and couldn't pick them up with his JD 4020.
