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| Where do you buy the silage pit plastic to cover your pits...and also should I use bales of hay to go around the sides or just make a big pile with no bales. If I should use the bales how do you arrange them. Thanks for any help. |
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Manitoba | weve done the bale thing in the past, it seems to be a good idea until you do it. those edges against the bales have all kinds of spoilage, you just can't pack it right. go drive over pile and i think the rule is 3:1 (width to height) if you really want little spoilage. it ends up being a pretty big flat pile but it's safe, packs great and if you cover it well right away you'll be happy. at least that's how it seems "here". |
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Just outside downtown Prairie Hill | Oakwood...would you explain this pile idea and size pile you like plus how do you cover it and keep the cover on. We are strongly considering chopping a good bit of corn this year. I've been reading @ the pile system and it sounds better and safer than the bale wall idea. We have no silage experience, any ideas you can offer would be appreciated. We've been feeding hay, wet gluten and syrup... so we have equipment to mix and feed. Searching for a custom cutter now. Thanks |
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sc ia | I stopped using plastic and bales several years ago. My pit does have walls though. When I stopped using plastic to cover the pit I didn't notice much difference in quality. It is important to cut it wet enough so it packs good. My system probably wouldn't be good enough for dairy but my beef cows like it. |
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Manitoba | I can explain it but even though I know what it is supposed to look like when you go look at my piles they don't olways come out like they should. The best pics I've seen have been posted here on agtalk by minn gopher. hope he does not mind me throwing his name on here but wow does he do a job on his piles. the following is a link to a pic he posted in regards to a question of bag vs pile. the pic shows how it should look. i think his piles are even flatter than 3:1 but also the reason he gets the quality i think.
http://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=257190&posts=7... baggers&highlightmode=1#M2001082
the 3:1 rule simply means that for every foot of pile height you should have 3 feet of pile width. so if the peak is 20 feet high your pile should be 60 feet wide. the ends should be the same or at least allow enough slope to pack from all sides. following this slope rule allows you to do a good job of packing the sides. and its safe. otherwise if your steeper you are not really packing the sides but more sliding down the slope with the tractor and the force is not directly down. hopefully minn gopher will comment if he sees the post. i think the large foot print of doing the pile this way is usually the reason people don't do it, I know it's a struggle for us to have that big an area but if you want the feed to be excellant it's the way to go with minimal spoilage.
the bales for side thing did contain the footprint but spoilage was really awful on the sides. we even would put plastic down first to the ground on the inside and over the bales but still you just can't pack it well enough. also it's really easy for the tractor to fall in at the sides as the bales are hard to keep from moving. i had a tractor i was packing in just slump over sideways at the edge as the bales pushed away. not a fun moment.
regarding covering, again tires or tire sidewalls are the best if covered solidly. but a lot of work. if your pile location is a little sheltered, ours is, we have had some success with blowing chopped straw onto the pile after covering with plastic. we first cover, weight the edges down with sand (we bed with sand in the barn so it's always available, does not take much and is heavy.) and then blow straw bales with a bale processer to cover the whole thing, if it last the first day without it getting really windy it lasts. we are not completely in the open though, that may be why it works. biggest reason for not using tires is availability here and the fact that by the time were done chopping we are shot and usually finding any bodies at that time to cover the pile with tires is tough.
sizing depends on how much your using per day. and if your using for dairy or beef. if dairy you want at least 6 inches in cooler weather and closer to a foot in heat. that is tough if your not a big herd, we don't feed enough out and in summer quality suffers. this year i had our 1st cut haylage bagged. never done so before but we were so short staffed we could not make a pile. it was sure a relaxed pace vs making and covering a pile. we'll see how the quality is and whether things convinces us to do more in the future.
martin
Edited by Oakwood 7/1/2012 00:11
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South West MN | no plastic probable works at $2 corn but at $6.50 you get to much rot. you get a lot more shrink than you think. just pack it good and when you think you have enuff tires ad twice as many. |
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Northwest Iowa | Raven Industries is were we get our plastic from. They have a product that is oxygen resistant and has string woven in to reduce tearing and keeps the coon and crows from tearing apart. Packing is first an formost the important step for quality feed, then covering and sealing next. 1" of spoilage = 2" of rotted feed, so if you get 6" of rotten on top, you actually lost 12" of good feed. Tires are the most available weight used here, but there are many other things you could use, like sand bags or even just a row of small square bales spaced so the tarp does not blow in the wind. If the tarp is not tight and held down to the feed, air is getting in and you are loseing quality. Hay bales as side walls do let in air, and you will have both rotten silage along the edge and rotten hay bales, I would go without and just make a drive over pile. 6" of removal is minimum in winter and 12" is better when temps start to rise, so long and narrow shaped is better. Just google 'Raven Industries' and see if they have a list of dealers in your area. At $65 per ton corn silage, a few cents invested in covering will pay back big dividends. Figure the tarp size you need and go out were you will make your pile and set some small bales or flags in each of the corners for the packing guy to see. Then as your pile goes up, pull a tape measure over every now and then to be sure you don't get too wide for your tarp. |
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silage pit plastic
