Silage 2022

I am hoping to get about 10 acres of hay done....my heart is broken looking at met eireann...looked like nice dry weather, low 20 degrees and sunny..based on their forecast yesterday, i had the contractor booked to mow the grass today....then they changed it completely for the weekend with showers...cancelled it....

You would wonder how hay was made in the past!

Looking at Met Eireann app is like reading your horoscope....

Wishy washy waffle, that can apply to any day...

Sunny but maybe showery...possiblity of a rise in temp but maybe not....

bbc weather gives a far better forecast. MET try to cover every eventuality and you end not knowing anything definite.

Lads have been recommending yr.no also but I found it hard to get it to update for Ireland.

Silage making needs only 24 - 36 hours provided the Silage is cut dry. I've always found that when cut wet it never drys properly unless it gets extra time but at that stage the quality is going down.

If that’s the prices you’re being charged I’d imagine it’s in house you need to be looking at rather than the contractor. To me that seems like a f**k off price. For whatever reason he doesn’t want to do your work so instead of saying no he’s just charging you enough so he’s making enough out of you to compensate for whatever reason he doesn’t like you.

Maybe it’s something like the attitude from you towards the contractor in that post that’s the problem? Whatever it is it’s costing you money anyway.

€10 - €12 per acre for tedding or raking would be the going rate for majority of contractors in the country.

Weather models struggle with shallow troughs and result in forecasts that flip flop. The weather forum on boards can be good to get an understanding of the big picture. Wish it was as busy as the UK forums though. Worth following the model discussions on them too.

It is here too ….some fairly far fetched rates quoted in this thread for taking and tedding

Good advice, I opted away from a tether as I do be spreading fert or spraying the day before drawing bales. Contr mowed another bit this evening on a windy hill, sward tom afternoon and bale Thursday before the rain....

+1 on the bales. No comparison in grass that’s tedded and that just raked up into 30’ row with no tedding.

but weather is the key regardless and once it’s mowed dry and gets good weather afterwards, then its easy work.

140 for long draw. Mowed ourselves so taking 165 /ac

Lads, what is a reasonable cost of silage ready to cut in terms per round bale cost.

It has 3000 slurry and 3 bags fert at 1000 ton.

I said something around 24 bale for the standing grass he pays cutting ect... And he almost collapsed....

It was probably three bags of can or cut sward.if it was great it was over kill. If the slurry was spread with a splash plate he be about 90-95 units/ acre. It would be kind of bang on the money for a crop.

However I cannot fathom lads that use CAN and Cut Sward on first cut. I have always used Urea. If the slurry went out with a dribble bar 1.5 bags of urea/ acre gives you a crop.

My fertlizer cost would be 14-15/ bale @8/ acre Inc slurry spreading costs.

I have stores and feed no ration over the winter. Feed value reduced fast from early June on. 25th of May is earliest I cut it and I always try to get It by 5-7th June at latest.

Last year my feed costs were about 90c/ day Inc mins and vits if I cost my silage at 37/ bale this year it's will be 1.2-1.3/day.

If I had to feed 1-2 kg of ration because of poorer quality silage it would add 40-80c/ day to feed costs.

Fertlizer is still better value than ration when you are storing cattle over the winter. Stores gain 3-500 grams per day on this system so it's on the money

I may be reading this wrong but if allowing a bale last winter to cost €37/bale then a bale is feeding 41 stores per day. I had weanlings here last winter that when through more silage a day than that.