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Alberta, Canada | Well we're only barely halfway through 2008 and I'm already planning the 2009 edition of Josh's Mad Silaging Experiment. Ok, not exactly, just had an idea pass me by, and I got to wondering how logical it would be.
Would a guy be able to cut the corn with a rotary hay head / pull-type discbine? And then bale it with a big square baler(non cutter)?
With my climate, guys here are lucky to get corn 6 feet tall, but it still yields much better than a hay field. The only guys doing it in my area are a few of the larger dairy farmers, and they're chopping it all with a forage harvester.
I've cut down extremely thick grass that was nearly 6 feet tall with no problems, not sure how the corn would go. I know I'd have to open my rollers right up.
While cutting in these pics I was averaging 11mph with no problems:
I then twin-rakes the swaths and baled that with a Hesston 3x4 big square baler, again, no issues.
Even if I could get it cut, and baled, how well would the silage turn out? It'd be chopped before feeding, but not before being ensiled.
Thought I might see about seeding 20 acres of it when we work down one of our pastures, would mostly let graze it themselves over the winter (I read an article a farmer 30minutes away that does this), but try to make a few passes with the cutter/baler to see how it went. If it went well, would perhaps seed a bigger field for 2010.
This gives an idea of the way the corn turns out here, these pictures were taken about an hour North West of me:
http://www.farmphoto.com/fpv2/thread.aspx?mid=480467#480467
Your thoughts? |
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Saronville NE | Josh, cant answer yr question about the balin the green corn and makin sialge out of it, but we swathed some standing burned up corn with our SP discmower to summers ago, you could run 11mph until you hit a draw or somewhere there had been moisture so that there was actually ears on the corn and even with the rolls opened up, the ears were to big to go thru the crimpers, so most ended up on the ground and it sounded horrible in the cab when all those ears where trying to go thru the head, after we let it drydown for a few weeks, we went in and baled it, we got some of the ears in the baler, but the ground was justyellow where there had been ears, just couldnt get it picked up either. Thats our experience. Good luck |
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Chilliwack, British Columbia | I think if you really want to try it, go ahead and try it. Just dont' do a lot of acres. Near as I can figure, the baler probably cannot squeeze enough air out of a corn bale to make silage out of it, unless maybe it was really green. Not sure how well corn cobs/stalks compress when they are whole. If you could dry it down and make "hay", it might work OK, but like ahay said, you may not get many cobs.
Also, i would be worried about cutting it with a discbine. Where we have cut half bare spots in our grass fields, I worry about how much dirt the knives are throwing around underneath, let alone a whole lot of acres where there is a lot of dirt that has no grass on it. Lift the head up a bit and it probably won't be so bad.
If you really want that kind of feed for you cows, you are probably better off just to plant barley, and cut during the soft dough stage. Lots of dairies in you area have done well with that for years, would probably work pretty good for you operation. Just a thought.
Good Luck with your made silage experiments!
Glenn
Edited by tonesaguy 7/20/2008 09:48
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Nevada, Iowa | I can't answer your question but many years ago feeders in this area would occasionally bale sorghum/sudan in round bales. This was usually done after a frost took the life out of it. To my knowledge they were never done wet or ensiled.
Question: Is that Reed's Canarygrass you're cutting in the pictures? Sure looks like it. Nice stand! |
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Texas | we did grow some forage sudan ,it got as big as corn ,no problems cutting it .
the problem was getting it dry and the big stalks did not feed good .
you can cut and round bale big stalks ,hard on all the equipment though . |
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| neighbors tried some one year. Cut it with a haybine and rolled it up with a silage baler. It seems to me the bales weighed between 2500 and 3000 lbs. I think they were stuffing them into bags. Never did hear how it turned out. |
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| We tried that one year too (Sudan). Was amazed that the conventional haybine cut the stuff and fed it through. Took forever to dry down, but we baled into small squares and fed it to heifers. They LOVED the stuff. Never did try it again though since it takes so long to dry. |
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Wisconsin | Same as any forage watch condition's closely. Barley or wheat beard's can get caught in cattle's jaw while cud chewing infecting and killing them. Sorghum and corn watch for nitrates and other toxic problem's. Sorghum really bad neighbor chopped and put in bag had cleaned around bag what spilled and within 4 hour's had 7 dead and dozen's more very ill. Another guy round baled oats and wrapped during the winter he fed one bale and killed 2 head rest of inline tube was fine how that 1 bale was toxic is hard to know but when you start killing animal's it's better to be gambling at the casino. |
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| I don't know a thing about trying to cut corn with a discbine and then running it through a baler but I'd doubt it would work very well.
I'd be more concerned about the simple economics of growing corn on the fringe. I can't see it paying you if you can't get the maturity. We're in an area here where we only get enough heat in perhaps 2 years out of 10 to actually bring the crop to maturity. We use a clear plastic mulch over the corn crop to get it in the ground earlier and that will bring it over the threshold every year and boost the starch content quite high as well, so it does pay... but it's really marginal with the present cost of annual tillage and other inputs. The plastic is also a killer at about ~140/acre... but the plastic will pay for itself in boosted yeild alone. The question is whether or not corn would pay you in a normal year without plastic.
If you're interested in that, let me know.
The system we're using was developed in Ireland. It's most prominent use in Canada is in the Codroy valley and St. John areas of Newfoundland, but there are three of us using it here in Nova Scotia.
Rod |
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Sioux Center, Iowa | Sounds like trying to do it the hard way. Why not just chop the stuff? Would be much easier. The guy that mentioned ears flying off by your rollers has a legit point. I've run enough corn through my unit to know the rolls work like corn head strippers. The ears will fly.
Palatability for the livestock????? How are you gonna feed that without a lot of waste?
Chop it and be done with it. Your cost per ton will be a fraction. my .02 |
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Corn silage? In bales? Impossible?
