fertiliser to make haylage or hay

motorman

Hi all,
We are going to make haylage or hay this year for the horses and ponys we have. I have saved hay before but never had anything to do with the field management, what sort of fertiliser should I put down and when??
Cheers

adne

whats haylage?

vincenzolorenzo

Its made in the same way as baled silage but left to dry for much longer, so the bales have a far higher DM content. You could think of it as halfway between silage and hay if you like

Username John

This is a bit off topic...

For some reason I thought that if grass went into round bales too dry - such as "haylage" that it wouldn't make good silage, as it wouldn't ferment correctly, and would end up mouldy somehow?

Is this wrong - so there is no such thing as grass "too dry" to put into round bales?

Casinoking

The drier the grass the more plastic you need when wrapping. Most people put 4 wraps on silage, for haylage you need at least 6 wraps and some people use 8. We always put 6 wraps on our silage anyway because we found it keeps better, particularly if it has to last into a second year. Several customers we wrap for have started doing the same in recent years, the slightly higher cost is minimal in relation to the feed quality when you open the bale.

vincenzolorenzo

Well there is a limit. If grass is completely dried out and has gone into hay then wrapping it won't make a difference, it'll just remain as hay. But the moisture content of haylage is too high to leave unwrapped as it would start to heat and go mouldy

snowman707

motorman wrote: »

Hi all,
We are going to make haylage or hay this year for the horses and ponys we have. I have saved hay before but never had anything to do with the field management, what sort of fertiliser should I put down and when??
Cheers

18.6.12 or 10.10.20

ideally late march to mid april subject to suitable weather

Casinoking

Went a bit off topic there alright, 10-10-20 would probably be the best bet for hay, there isn't as much nitrogen as 18-6-12 so the grass won't be as "green" and would therefore be easier to make.

pakalasa

If you want more stemmier grass (good for horses - no??) then get 0-7-30 out early followed my Urea (47% Nitrogen) about 6 weeks before you plan to cut. Getting the 0-7-30 out earlier alows it time to work into the roots of the grass. Up uptake of Nitrogen is much quicker IMO.

To do it properly, you should get a soil test done, land may need lime also, if the land has gone a lttle acidic. Hope this helps!

snowman707

pakalasa wrote: »

If you want more stemmier grass (good for horses - no??) then get 0-7-30 out early followed my Urea (47% Nitrogen) about 6 weeks before you plan to cut. Getting the 0-7-30 out earlier alows it time to work into the roots of the grass. Up uptake of Nitrogen is much quicker IMO.

To do it properly, you should get a soil test done, land may need lime also, if the land has gone a lttle acidic. Hope this helps!

don't have the data to hand but results carried out in Germany show that best quality silage (not haylage I admit) were got by using compound fert ie most feeding value

the worst were from slurry followed by urea, or N

personally I would not use a high K followed by urea, but then I have not used urea for over 25 years.

motorman

Great advise as usiall on here guys thanks very much.
How much would I be looking at spending on fert if I was to make 20 acres?? Roughly??

John_F

snowman707 wrote: »

don't have the data to hand but results carried out in Germany show that best quality silage (not haylage I admit) were got by using compound fert ie most feeding value

the worst were from slurry followed by urea, or N

personally I would not use a high K followed by urea, but then I have not used urea for over 25 years.

...going off topic here i knwo but can i ask why you havnt used urea? few farmers around here dont either, on the basis that it drives the ground too hard