Doug61 - 9/10/2020 10:16 You are living a dream/idea of mine. Early season high CP haylage, leaves field forage vegatative deeper into summer. Or stockpiled for winter. Late season, push through and preserve forage that is hard to get dry. Wrapper salesman says many farms can produce their own stockcow protein supplement instead of buying concentrate. On farm haylage production in marginal weather should allow more timely custom dry hay production for neighbors. So why do I still only make traditional dry hay? Inexpensive commodity co-products availability. Capital investment in wrapper. Steep learning curve. Known producers 2 hours away makes learning by observation hard. Our environment generally supports dry hay production. Far flung hay fields and transport issues. Plastic trash management. Comments? A few comments: If your climate supports dry hay that is the way to go. Dry hay has been near impossible around here in recent years. I was also tired of having hay in a shed and equipment outside over the winter. Wrapper was much cheaper than building another shed. Well cared for equipment has residual value. I could sell much of my equipment for near what I paid for it over the years. There's a learning curve even with neighbors across the road. Wet bales are heavy and not conducive to transport over long distances. There is MUCH less hay waste with baleage than dry hay. Cows will almost lick the ground clean and no more wasting the outer foot around a bale in Feb and March in Wisconsin There is a plastic wrap recycler in WI. We need another one or more. Someone will start another.
Edited by Jim 9/11/2020 10:52
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