Silage 2021

I says

And we’re off @2pm





























Bollox the tractor has broken down

zetecescort

contractors and HSE concerns on overfilling pits

https://www.irishexaminer.com/farming/arid-40310363.html

Water John

TMK actually very few accidents on silage pits. Spent a good few years looking down on the roofs on sheds from the top of pits. Once you'd have built it yourself, you'd be fairly comfortable. Biggest danger I see is sealing a pit that's above the walls.

ruwithme

Yea pits generally aren't big enough for volumes needed now on many farms. Contractors could play a better role by not rowing it all up until a picture was emerging on ,if a pit could take anymore

Once it's in a 30 foot & more row, baling up any not fitting in a pit is not a option for some,as many baler men wouldn't want to touch it.

So i says, for the time being,contractors play your part on it.

I says

Mowed

Sami23

Well lads what are the majority using this year for bales:

Barrel Wrap or Netting and why ?

lab man

I says wrote: »

And
























Bollox the tractor has broken down

Wat happened

jaymla627

ruwithme wrote: »

Yea pits generally aren't big enough for volumes needed now on many farms. Contractors could play a better role by not rowing it all up until a picture was emerging on ,if a pit could take anymore

Once it's in a 30 foot & more row, baling up any not fitting in a pit is not a option for some,as many baler men wouldn't want to touch it.

So i says, for the time being,contractors play your part on it.

The speed at which grass is been brought in is a huge issue too, pits simply arent been rolled enough and most of the time the load is bulldozed up in the one swipe with the only rolling it gets been on the way back down to shove up the next load, we do wagon silage and once the pit starts to get high and long we put the tractor up to roll and the loader justs shoves up, if we didnt do this we woudnt get half the volume into the pit

I says

lab man wrote: »

Wat happened

Track rod end.

dh1985

ruwithme wrote: »

Yea pits generally aren't big enough for volumes needed now on many farms. Contractors could play a better role by not rowing it all up until a picture was emerging on ,if a pit could take anymore

Once it's in a 30 foot & more row, baling up any not fitting in a pit is not a option for some,as many baler men wouldn't want to touch it.

So i says, for the time being,contractors play your part on it.

Cant see how this is the contractors responsibility to ensure there is enough pit capacity. He could hardly have a man driving a rake in front of the harvester just in case a farmer hasn't made provisions for storing his own crop.

Biscuitus

Biscuitus wrote: »

Because the sun is out!!! What are you waiting for!!!

Seriously though some lads just get into a panic as if we won't get sunny weather again. I have a dry farm and yesterday evening the grass was still to wet to cut after 4 days of sun. I'll be waiting another week or two, I'll get more yield and a better preservation from the drier crop.

Quoting myself here but contractors said neighbour down the road couldn't lift his silage bales after making them at the first sign of sun last week. I understand there were fodder problems but the panic for cutting silage this year have only caused more problems by cutting fields that weren't dry enough.

Gudstock

Are you compliant if you stack round bales 3 high in a yard not providing for any runoff or is 2 high the compliant thing to do?

White Clover

Gudstock wrote: »

Are you compliant if you stack round bales 3 high in a yard not providing for any runoff or is 2 high the compliant thing to do?

In the old Reps scheme, the guidelines were a maximum of 2 high. I tend to stick to that as I don't see why the department would deviate from that.

timple23

Are many contractors using the compactor type trailers? Don't here much talk about them these days.

roosterman71

15 hours mowing today. Only stopping for nature. Time to hit the scratcher. If there wasn't such a crowd out the back of the local I'd chance one or two pints

Reggie.

roosterman71 wrote: »

15 hours mowing today. Only stopping for nature. Time to hit the scratcher. If there wasn't such a crowd out the back of the local I'd chance one or two pints

Some man for the hardship

Grass was shook out at 7 pm yesterday and raked in at about 7 am this morning, is there any value in that?

cute geoge

Deleted User wrote: »

Grass was shook out at 7 pm yesterday and raked in at about 7 am this morning, is there any value in that?

I would say no value even if it was shook out at 7 am yesterday morning because no drying yesterday here anyway but thats a complete joke by the contractor I presume ,handy E20 acre anyway for him

Bass Reeves

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Grass was shook out at 7 pm yesterday and raked in at about 7 am this morning, is there any value in that?

When is it being baled. If it gets until after midday it will make a good difference

cute geoge

cute geoge wrote: »

I would say no value even if it was shook out at 7 am yesterday morning because no drying yesterday here anyway but thats a complete joke by the contractor I presume ,handy E20 acre anyway for him

The wind was blowing here to be fair, but cant see much value in it either

Bass Reeves

Bass Reeves wrote: »

When is it being baked. If it gets until after midday it will make a good difference

Id say the afternoon

cute geoge

cute geoge wrote: »

I would say no value even if it was shook out at 7 am yesterday morning because no drying yesterday here anyway but thats a complete joke by the contractor I presume ,handy E20 acre anyway for him

To be fair the lines have sank an awful lot

Bass Reeves

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Id say the afternoon

Ya it will make a bit of a difference. It will remove any surface dampness and wilt the underneath if the grass. My contractor includes the taking in his price

tanko

[Deleted User] wrote: »

To be fair the lines have sank an awful lot

That doesn’t mean it’s any drier, it was a bit pointless what he did to get the full benefit of the tedding.
It is much better to ted silage out in the morning and let it dry for the day. If he had to leave rowing yours until lunchtime it would have been better.

tanko

tanko wrote: »

That doesn’t mean it’s any drier, it was a bit pointless what he did to get the full benefit of the tedding.
It is much better to ted silage out in the morning and let it dry for the day. If he had to leave rowing yours until lunchtime it would have been better.

Im with you on that.

To be fair it is fairly dry as it is so ideally he would have done that but as is its ok

Siamsa Sessions

Just to close out on my situation: the contractor didn’t throw it out but shook it up a bit in the rows. He kinda re-rowed it I guess.

That was Friday afternoon when we were after a few hours of sunshine. Great sun and drying after that too, and he baled it yesterday (Sat) afternoon. Still a touch wet but not bad considering. About 8 bales/acre so heavy enough.

Have more to cut now so onto the next plan!

Thanks to everyone who posted here when I had a wobble earlier in the week. Don’t ever underestimate the support people get from your posts on here. Thanks

ABitofsense

Silage done and stacked. 12.5 bales to the acre so delighted. 2 weeks later than usual and small bit stemy in parts but compared to how little was in the fields 4 weeks ago, I shouldn't be complaining!

_Brian

Shook out, great breezy drying and now in rows waiting for the baler which is on it’s way.


https://ibb.co/k2xvLWc


The odd growth this year left it stemmier than usual but it will be fine.

I’ll be away till later so I expect a late night drawing bales, but there’s two of us so nobody gets too bored.

AntrimGlens

I looked the forecast on Sunday night and it looked to be dry Monday, Tuesday and into Wednesday evening. I rang my mower man and he said he'd come Monday after lunch and cut about eight acres worth of paddocks that had gone a bit strong for the sheep. It wasn't heavy but was nice leafy stuff and I thought it would be great to get it off and dry.
He rang me yesterday morning to ask did I want him to come on ahead as it had rained fairly heavy with him through Sunday night. I asked him to come on ahead as I had been through it about 7am Monday morning and hadn't got much rain and would be dry by lunchtime.
He duly came and mowed yesterday about 2pm. Not much sun, but drying away nicely again this morning. I rang the baler man last night and asked could he come on Wednesday and he said he would, no problem.
I'm in work today and my father rang me, I knew what was coming. Did you ring anyone about coming to bale that, I said I did and he's coming Wednesday daytime. Ah shure that's no use there's to be heavy rain tonight. He said he had been through the swards this morning and they're in lovely order, would be best to get it baled today. I said I asked the contractor to come on Wednesday and I hadn't seen much rain forecast for tonight.

His parting words were, "Well I know what I'd be doing if it was my grass, but it's up to you what you do". Jaysus oul fellas know how to lay on the guilt. So what did I do to keep the peace, I went and rang my baler man and asked him if there was any chance he could come on ahead this evening, fully accepting if he said no, that was fine as I'd asked him to come Wednesday. He said he'll come on ahead this evening, so yet again my oul fella wins. It probably won't even rain tonight if I do get it baled.

orm0nd

AntrimGlens wrote: »

I looked the forecast on Sunday night and it looked to be dry Monday, Tuesday and into Wednesday evening. I rang my mower man and he said he'd come Monday after lunch and cut about eight acres worth of paddocks that had gone a bit strong for the sheep. It wasn't heavy but was nice leafy stuff and I thought it would be great to get it off and dry.
He rang me yesterday morning to ask did I want him to come on ahead as it had rained fairly heavy with him through Sunday night. I asked him to come on ahead as I had been through it about 7am Monday morning and hadn't got much rain and would be dry by lunchtime.
He duly came and mowed yesterday about 2pm. Not much sun, but drying away nicely again this morning. I rang the baler man last night and asked could he come on Wednesday and he said he would, no problem.
I'm in work today and my father rang me, I knew what was coming. Did you ring anyone about coming to bale that, I said I did and he's coming Wednesday daytime. Ah shure that's no use there's to be heavy rain tonight. He said he had been through the swards this morning and they're in lovely order, would be best to get it baled today. I said I asked the contractor to come on Wednesday and I hadn't seen much rain forecast for tonight.

His parting words were, "Well I know what I'd be doing if it was my grass, but it's up to you what you do". Jaysus oul fellas know how to lay on the guilt. So what did I do to keep the peace, I went and rang my baler man and asked him if there was any chance he could come on ahead this evening, fully accepting if he said no, that was fine as I'd asked him to come Wednesday. He said he'll come on ahead this evening, so yet again my oul fella wins. It probably won't even rain tonight if I do get it baled.

auld fellas can be a right pita alright cough! cough!

in any case hope you get it baled dry,

up since 4.am here drawing sheep home for shearing 'cos THE YOUNG LAD said we were due rain at lunch time , still nice and sunny now @ 3pm and had to let the sheep in a paddock for a couple of hours 'cos of the dew on the fleeces and shear the ones we housed last night first.

Castlekeeper

AntrimGlens wrote: »

I looked the forecast on Sunday night and it looked to be dry Monday, Tuesday and into Wednesday evening. I rang my mower man and he said he'd come Monday after lunch and cut about eight acres worth of paddocks that had gone a bit strong for the sheep. It wasn't heavy but was nice leafy stuff and I thought it would be great to get it off and dry.
He rang me yesterday morning to ask did I want him to come on ahead as it had rained fairly heavy with him through Sunday night. I asked him to come on ahead as I had been through it about 7am Monday morning and hadn't got much rain and would be dry by lunchtime.
He duly came and mowed yesterday about 2pm. Not much sun, but drying away nicely again this morning. I rang the baler man last night and asked could he come on Wednesday and he said he would, no problem.
I'm in work today and my father rang me, I knew what was coming. Did you ring anyone about coming to bale that, I said I did and he's coming Wednesday daytime. Ah shure that's no use there's to be heavy rain tonight. He said he had been through the swards this morning and they're in lovely order, would be best to get it baled today. I said I asked the contractor to come on Wednesday and I hadn't seen much rain forecast for tonight.

His parting words were, "Well I know what I'd be doing if it was my grass, but it's up to you what you do". Jaysus oul fellas know how to lay on the guilt. So what did I do to keep the peace, I went and rang my baler man and asked him if there was any chance he could come on ahead this evening, fully accepting if he said no, that was fine as I'd asked him to come Wednesday. He said he'll come on ahead this evening, so yet again my oul fella wins. It probably won't even rain tonight if I do get it baled.

Well if it was down here there's drops already, I'd say he's not wrong this time, I'd thank him regardless.
Sometimes I find it best to look on what the parents say as if they were my children, and that tempers my reactions and expectations in a very positive way for all of us.

MfMan

AntrimGlens wrote: »

I looked the forecast on Sunday night and it looked to be dry Monday, Tuesday and into Wednesday evening. I rang my mower man and he said he'd come Monday after lunch and cut about eight acres worth of paddocks that had gone a bit strong for the sheep. It wasn't heavy but was nice leafy stuff and I thought it would be great to get it off and dry.
He rang me yesterday morning to ask did I want him to come on ahead as it had rained fairly heavy with him through Sunday night. I asked him to come on ahead as I had been through it about 7am Monday morning and hadn't got much rain and would be dry by lunchtime.
He duly came and mowed yesterday about 2pm. Not much sun, but drying away nicely again this morning. I rang the baler man last night and asked could he come on Wednesday and he said he would, no problem.
I'm in work today and my father rang me, I knew what was coming. Did you ring anyone about coming to bale that, I said I did and he's coming Wednesday daytime. Ah shure that's no use there's to be heavy rain tonight. He said he had been through the swards this morning and they're in lovely order, would be best to get it baled today. I said I asked the contractor to come on Wednesday and I hadn't seen much rain forecast for tonight.

His parting words were, "Well I know what I'd be doing if it was my grass, but it's up to you what you do". Jaysus oul fellas know how to lay on the guilt. So what did I do to keep the peace, I went and rang my baler man and asked him if there was any chance he could come on ahead this evening, fully accepting if he said no, that was fine as I'd asked him to come Wednesday. He said he'll come on ahead this evening, so yet again my oul fella wins. It probably won't even rain tonight if I do get it baled.

It's a damp day here in the west so I'd go with your father, better safe than sorry.

funkey_monkey

Just took at look at Met office for Antrim at the minute. Looks like rain currently and heavy rain during the night.
Hope AG gets it baled up before the rain comes along.

Jb1989

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Just took at look at Met office for Antrim at the minute. Looks like rain currently and heavy rain during the night.
Hope AG gets it baled up before the rain comes along.

Yea, bbc was giveing the rain for northern Ireland on tuesday night this few days, and it has landed here in monaghan at 9 pm.
The older generation aren't the cods that the younger ones make them out to be.

AntrimGlens

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Just took at look at Met office for Antrim at the minute. Looks like rain currently and heavy rain during the night.
Hope AG gets it baled up before the rain comes along.

Ah he’s a happy man tonite. Baler landed at 4 o’clock, was wrapped up in couple hours. I took the lad to hurling at 7 and when I came back at half eight there were a few spits. Raining away now. At least he doesn’t gloat that I told you so, he’s just content that I’m not too proud or stubborn to listen to him yet.

AntrimGlens

AntrimGlens wrote: »

Ah he’s a happy man tonite. Baler landed at 4 o’clock, was wrapped up in couple hours. I took the lad to hurling at 7 and when I came back at half eight there were a few spits. Raining away now. At least he doesn’t gloat that I told you so, he’s just content that I’m not too proud or stubborn to listen to him yet.

Good stuff, at least the rain keeps the birds off the wrapped bales so its not all bad.

Hopefully we get an indian summer to make up for the poor May weather

leoch

Wat do lads do to keep birds away from wrapped bales I herd white lime or grease or paint stuff on them

FintanMcluskey

leoch wrote: »

Wat do lads do to keep birds away from wrapped bales I herd white lime or grease or paint stuff on them

Put tyres on some of the bales

The birds are lifting worms and using a higher vantage point to scan for predators while picking at the worms

The tyres will then become the highest vantage point and where the birds will land

Or so I was told a few years ago

AntrimGlens

I always find it hard to believe lads on here that get plagued with birds on bales. We've never had nor see neighbours having an issue with crows landing on bales or holes being pulled in them. I've often seen bales sitting in fields here up to a day before they're drawn in and never a bird landing on them. Fcukers are probably too busy eating out of the calves creep feeders and too stuffed to fly!

Siamsa Sessions

AntrimGlens wrote: »

I always find it hard to believe lads on here that get plagued with birds on bales. We've never had nor see neighbours having an issue with crows landing on bales or holes being pulled in them. I've often seen bales sitting in fields here up to a day before they're drawn in and never a bird landing on them. Fcukers are probably too busy eating out of the calves creep feeders and too stuffed to fly!

Have to agree with you - bigger crow issue here is them eating out of the calf troughs. But there's always the odd hole on top of the silage bales too that needs to be patched

Bass Reeves

Crows really only same bales when they have a full belly. They go up on the bales for a vantage point to see what is happening as they are a curious bird. then they peck into the be to clean off here beak.

Always move bales out of a field ASAP. Try to avoid feeding ration near stacks. I have a slab in front of the shed that I put in when I build it. There is an old slab about 30 meters away at the side of the shed. I now use that to stack bales. I found when feeding ration over the winter the stack in front of the shed was where the crows congregated, now they perch on the trees in front of the shed.

It another reason not to winter finish a few cattle or feed ration to stores. When I finished feeding ration to the finishing bunch last winter after Christmas the crows stopped coming around

roosterman71

AntrimGlens wrote: »

I always find it hard to believe lads on here that get plagued with birds on bales. We've never had nor see neighbours having an issue with crows landing on bales or holes being pulled in them. I've often seen bales sitting in fields here up to a day before they're drawn in and never a bird landing on them. Fcukers are probably too busy eating out of the calves creep feeders and too stuffed to fly!

For some unknown reason, we get plagued with crows. It does be unreal at times. There could be thousands of them in the fields. We normally have a banger out going which works (trick is to keep rotating it so the bang comes from different directions). This year, the father put it away when I left the field with the second last load. Drove back in an hour later and place was infested, 15 bales in ****e. I used over 2 rolls of tape patching them. Unbelievable. The next day the field beside ours was baled and no crow to be seen. Bales were there well over a day and no damage done. Can't understand it

Say my name

FintanMcluskey wrote: »

Put tyres on some of the bales

The birds are lifting worms and using a higher vantage point to scan for predators while picking at the worms

The tyres will then become the highest vantage point and where the birds will land

Or so I was told a few years ago

It's the holes on the bottom of the bales you don't see. The ones where the crow just walks up to the bale and starts pecking.

A neighbour this week was plagued with crows and gulls. My own during the evening and next day I had no problem.
They weren't there that evening and I didn't see them the next day. But on the next day drawing the bales in I could see every lump of fym that was spread before the silage was closed up, turned up. So they were there that morning and there was crap on the bales. But not a bale pecked.

We could do with a Temple Grandin for crows.

happydude742

when you're there trying to get the silage lads to help with covering the pit....

Forget pigeons, crows are flying rats

leoch

someone said put white lime on top of the bales did anybody ever use it or would it be sore on the plastic

timple23

leoch wrote: »

someone said put white lime on top of the bales did anybody ever use it or would it be sore on the plastic

Waste oil or grease seems to do the trick.

Bass Reeves

timple23 wrote: »

Waste oil or grease seems to do the trick.

That will break down the plastic

Mac Taylor

Bass Reeves wrote: »

That will break down the plastic

Would have had the same problem here with crows picking the bales when stacked. I have used grease the last few years with no issue.

leoch

Do u put the grease out in blobs or spread it about top of bale