OT: haylage??

Tx Jim · May 4, 2012

Any members of this forum put up haylage?? A man down the road from me is windrowing followed by large sq baler then hauling to dairies 70 miles west then wrapping with plastic. The reason I'm asking is the crop is Wheat(totally brown in color) that needs to be combined in a week or two. Will the stalks be of high protein after it turns to haylage?Thanks for any info,Jim

Huskers86 · May 4, 2012

I run a chopper and we've put up a lot of dry wheat, hay and triticale (not sure if I spelled that right). I'm not sure how good the dry stuff is. I do know that it's hell for dulling knives and flowing through the blower.

rrlund · May 4, 2012

I'll just tell you this about it. Don't know why they'd be knocking it down and baling it instead of combining it then baling the straw,but the big dairies around here buy wheat straw in large square bales then grind it and mix it in to the total mixed ration for fiber. Maybe they figure they're getting the added protein in the ration by baling it with the grain in it? Don't know.

Tx Jim · May 4, 2012

You may be correct as large dairies in N Texas have very large tub grinders and feed down a lane.Last summer during the Texas drought many rd bales of Wheat straw were baled. I was told the dry straw tested 8% protein which bets sorry Coastal Bermuda.

Mike (WA) · May 4, 2012

If its brown and only a week from harvest, it wouldn't have enough moisture to make haylage. I think it needs to be between 30 and 50% moisture to cure properly.

Wonder if it might have just enough moisture to mold, like damp hay? Maybe not.

JohnS1970 · May 4, 2012

The milk stage is the time I aim for if I'm wrapping green feed. The idea of ensiling any crop is to convert the sugars to acids by limiting oxygen which drops the pH down where it will limit the growth of moulds and bacterias and increase storage time if exposure to oxygen is limited. At this crops stage most of the sugars will have been converted to starch which will use up some of the oxygen but not all of it, which could lead to spoilage. When any grass (including cereals) starts to head, the stalks will increase in fiber (lignin). Any protein will be in the kernels at this stage.

Tx Jim · May 5, 2012

(quoted from post at 15:00:18 05/04/12) If its brown and only a week from harvest, it wouldn't have enough moisture to make haylage. I think it needs to be between 30 and 50% moisture to cure properly.

I was thinking moisture has to be in 65% range. The wheat may be farther than 2 weeks from maturity as the seed heads haven't bent over. But oats were being combined in my county yesterday

OT: haylage??

Tx Jim

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Huskers86

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rrlund

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Tx Jim

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Mike (WA)

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JohnS1970

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Tx Jim

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