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How soon can baled silage be fed?

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 7:14 am
by SteveM
We feed mainly hay, and mini hesston size wrapped silage which is mainly baled in july.

This year we had a 2nd cut off a couple of acres of grass/clover and have five round bales produced on 9th september.

Being round these will be easiest fed in a ring feeder so would like to use them up in the field before the cows come in for winter.

How long does a wrapped silage or haylage bale take to fement?

Re: How soon can baled silage be fed?

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 8:33 am
by Duncan MacIntyre
Certainly not before Monday Steve, some of us are off the DCS AGM across the sea.

Duncan, off to get the first of two ferries!

Re: How soon can baled silage be fed?

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 7:44 pm
by marcus
Hi..
I never feed big bales until they have had at least six weeks, if you feed before it tends to go straight through them. Hope this helps.

Re: How soon can baled silage be fed?

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 9:08 pm
by Broomcroft
I thought it was OK (for cattle) straight away, but I've not fed earlier than about 2-3 weeks and that was more like haylage.

Re: How soon can baled silage be fed?

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 11:31 am
by SteveM
Tidied up our hay fields end of September so have eight roughly 3ft diameter round bales of silage this year, hoping to still have the cows out end of November so we can use them up in ring feeder in field, guessing they wont be too easy to handle into troughs being short grass and fairly heavy if kept till after the cows have come in for winter.

Re: How soon can baled silage be fed?

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 11:38 am
by Rob R
I started reading this thinking the whole thread was new (until I got to the bit about the AGM) - didn't read the date part of the year!