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Western OK | first off i know nothing about silage, tried baleage once and it didnt turn out very well. only reason we did the baleage is we had rain comming and had 200+ acres of wheat hay down and wanted to get some out before the rain. theres not alot of silage made around here, only one custom outfit that i know of. friend of mine had some chopped last year and he just pilled it on the ground, didnt cover it or nothing. i think it was hailed out corn. he said it made good feed.
a little bit about our operation- we have the grass capacity to run 160-180 cows. we are light stocked due to the fact we haven't built up completely from the drought and we have rented another place also. we calve in February, ween in mid October, turn out on wheat "hopefully" in the first week of November. then we sell calves after the first of the year 750-800 lbs. our cows winter on grass or milo stalks when handy, supplemented with hay and 20% range cubes. most of our hay is wheat, but we also put up Bermuda and blue-stem hay for starting calves and for calving out heifers. we also depending on the year will buy unworked calves to start and run on wheat, grass, or cover crop and we have also dabbled in feeding cull cows.
i enjoy starting calves and feeding cull cows probably more than just the strait cow/calf. the problems i have with the current way we do it is when feeding(not grazing) it bothers me when the calves leave the feed to go eat hay, even when we started them with squares or loose hay in the trough with feed poured on it for a week or so. it might be just me, the calves that do it look just as good, but it just bothers me. also the hay piles in the lots get to be a mess. we have cows that do the same thing, give them 2-3lbs range cubes every other day out of the pickup and as soon as they see you put hay down they leave the cubes to come eat hay. with our cow herd it doesnt bother me as much cause im not after weight gain, other than the girls about trampling you while your cutting the net off.
sorry for the long winded post, so heres some questions
1) what is the feed value difference between dry wheat hay and wheat silage? what about rained on wheat hay? we have a saying here "wheat hays no good unless it gets rained on once" even though we know thats not true....
2) what is the cost of putting up silage vs dry hay?
3) how long does silage keep out in the open vs dry net wrapped hay?
4) cover crop blend silage?- making it into hay is a pain with the pea leaves falling off and the large bmr stalks
5) feed rations with wheat silage? we have wheat, oats, milo, and have purchased corn this year
6) general info and opinions? what we do works but im always looking for ways to improve
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feeding silage vs hay and general questions
