The Rural Voice, 1997-02, Page 29Finding the dollars in round
bale silage
By Joan McKinlay
Round bale silage became very
popular again in 1996, as the
challenging weather patterns
made it a very good option for
capturing the feed value of the
forages in the field with minimal
losses. The cost of $4.00 - $5.00 per
bale, or even up to $8.00 for
individually wrapped bales seems
low now, in retrospect, when we
compare it to the present cost of
quality hay. Too much forage had to
be blown back onto the field or lay
deteriorating in the swath for far too
long this summer. Round bale silage
helped to save similar forages, as
they could be baled after a one or two
day wilt, just before the rain.
We now have much more round
bale silage to work into our rations
than we are used to using. How can
we use this feed to best advantage?
We produce high quality forages so
that we can maximize the use of
home grown forages and minimize
the supplemental costs for the ration.
There are two major areas where this
can fail. If we keep feeding
unnecessary supplemental feeds, then
performance and possibly health of
the animals will suffer. Both of these
problems can be addressed by
sampling and testing the feeds for
quality and then balancing the ration
based upon these results. Our goal is
to use the rumen most efficiently to
extract the maximum feed va!ue from
the feeds.
Round bale silage is very
palatable. Farmers who feed it report
that livestock will leave haylage, corn
silage in a bunk or dry hay in favour
of a bale of silage. The long stems
give adequate chewing action and the
taste encourages intake. For this
reason, it works well into a dairy
ration, as long as you can develop an
acceptable method of feeding the
bales. This means acceptable to both
your labour availability and the needs
of the livestock. You will need to
either be able to move the livestock
to the bale or the bale to the
livestock.
These bales are very heavy to
handle as the moisture levels give
increased weight. The dry matter in a
bale of wet or dry hay will generally
be very similar, but the weight of the
wet bale will be increased
dramatically. We have weighed
round bale silage in Dufferin County
and these 4' x 4' bales weighed 1500-
1700 pounds. In addition, the lever
action of how the bale is carried by
the tractor puts all this weight directly
on the front tires of the tractor and
removes weight from the back
wheels. This not only puts extreme
pressure on the front tires, but
reduces traction as well. People using
round bale silage have adapted to this
Wrapping bales for round bale silage
can help beat the weather.
by upgrading lanes and storage sites,
generally using four-wheel drive
tractors and by making sure that tires
arc in good shape. Actually, the hales
will take care of this item, but just not
on your time schedule. You choose!
Young livestock that are being fed
for gain can also make good use of
this feed. Once again, intake is not a
problem as they like the feed. In
Manitoba, they have measured gains
of 1.75 - 2.00 pounds per day on
baleagc alone, whcn it is fed to feeder
calves. It may still make better use of
the fced to supplement some grain,
but this outlines the potential of the
feed. Once again, a balanced ration
will help you to attain your
production goals.
"But it doesn't fit for beef cows!"
This is often heard. As the only feed
source, it will overfeed their
requirements if they arc not lactating.
During this time it could be used to
stretch feed supplies, by "cutting" it
with straw or poor hay. It becomes a
supplement itself. As long as you can
fccd so that each individual cow has
an opportunity to consume both
feeds, it is a means of balancing poor
quality feeds. You may want to save
it until after calving, so that the cattle
can make better use of the feed. This
has some problems associated with it,
as you will likely be saving it to feed
in warmer weather.
The pH level of round bale silage
never drops below the Icvcl of 5,
which is needed to provide an
environment where molds can't
grow. In fact, the pH is usually 5.5 to
5.8. This means that once oxygen
enters the "silage" the potential is
FEBRUARY 1997 25