Hay yields low??

[Applelonia]

Jul 9, 2018 13:28:40 GMT -5 jerseyrose said:

Jul 9, 2018 9:49:25 GMT -5 brigitte said:

Oddly enough, New England is in a good year for hay. The heavy rain and spring runoff in April and May gave way to good openings for cutting and drying in early to late June . I try to avoid first cuttings because of the stalkiness of it- when they go for the edge of the round bales the thicker grasses and weed stalks hit them in the nose. they like better to eat from the side. Lots of good protein in newly seeded fields and we're into second cutting now with massive sunshine and now this week a break from the heat with good drying air.
I was paying $75 per round bale last winter and just picked up nine off the field for $35/e. There is plenty available. Wish I had more space for storage. Having hay in the barn for the winter was always such a rich feeling.
Appelonia, why aren't you feeding out round bales with the amount of hay you feed. I believe you have a tractor..Spear attachments not that expensive and very easy to transport bales to and from a transport wagon. Much easier and less work than that many square bales. Put the rounds in a feeder off the ground- I have one with a tarp over it. I can't imagine life without it

Storage might have something to do with it Applelonia?

I feed rounds by hand. I keep 2 under the lean -to in my goat barn flat side up for easy unwinding and the rest we put bale bonnets on www.sliponsbalebonnets.com and store outside . I still get some wetness on the underside despite the covering but the bale is near perfect and green when we pull the wrap off. As much as people are paying for hay I can't fathom losing the outside 2+ inches to weather.


The wraps are reusable too

We have a hay spear ...but you’re right it is because of storage!! We only have room for about 400-500 square bales in our barn. Round bales would need to be stored outside. Applelonia is on a weight management plan 😕 ...with her retirement status she seems to have gotten a hearty appetite and eats everything. She could not have access to a round bale.

I feed most of the hay inside the barn to monitor what the cows are eating. France is rather thuggish when it comes to eating ...she runs off Daffodil and Dazzling and controls when and how much they eat so they often are fed separately. And our cows are so picky (minus Appy) that I think there would be more waste with round bales. Round bales would get moldy on the outside and I don’t want to be manually removing the crusty mold layer and feeding out hay from a round bale by unrolling it and pitch forking it to the cows - very labor intensive.

Small squares are the easiest for me to feed. I can also dispose of them easily if I run into mold. It is more costly to fed square bales, but I’m hoping in time we’ll be getting all hay needed from our field.

[jerseyrose]

Jul 10, 2018 7:53:45 GMT -5 Applelonia said:

Jul 9, 2018 13:28:40 GMT -5 jerseyrose said:

Storage might have something to do with it Applelonia?

I feed rounds by hand. I keep 2 under the lean -to in my goat barn flat side up for easy unwinding and the rest we put bale bonnets on www.sliponsbalebonnets.com and store outside . I still get some wetness on the underside despite the covering but the bale is near perfect and green when we pull the wrap off. As much as people are paying for hay I can't fathom losing the outside 2+ inches to weather.


The wraps are reusable too

We have a hay spear ...but you’re right it is because of storage!! We only have room for about 400-500 square bales in our barn. Round bales would need to be stored outside. Applelonia is on a weight management plan 😕 ...with her retirement status she seems to have gotten a hearty appetite and eats everything. She could not have access to a round bale.

I feed most of the hay inside the barn to monitor what the cows are eating. France is rather thuggish when it comes to eating ...she runs off Daffodil and Dazzling and controls when and how much they eat so they often are fed separately. And our cows are so picky (minus Appy) that I think there would be more waste with round bales. Round bales would get moldy on the outside and I don’t want to be manually removing the crusty mold layer and feeding out hay from a round bale by unrolling it and pitch forking it to the cows - very labor intensive.

Small squares are the easiest for me to feed. I can also dispose of them easily if I run into mold. It is more costly to fed square bales, but I’m hoping in time we’ll be getting all hay needed from our field.

Round bales are actually easy to feed by hand ( no pitchfork needed) but you are right that if you can't store your opened bales under cover while you use them there is a lot of waste.

Is your field ready to cut soon? Seems like you should have gotten a first cutting way before now.