How much does a bale of silage cost?

I've seen poor enough stuff go for 35, stuff sold at 45 as well that I personally wouldn't have rated as worth it. I sold bales at 45 that were decent stuff to a neighbour.

You wouldn't be going far wrong at costing a bale at 30 euro all in and good stuff dearer, add in a margin for the man selling from there on.

If its good stuff it is worth €45 a bale if you really want to pay him the current market value of it

€35 to €45 depending on quality

Why pay cash?

I got €27 cash a few weeks ago. It’s the same as €50 to me through a cheque but can’t see the value for your man paying cash.

Plenty of cash farmers out there, not known or pursued by the tax man, who pay in cash as a way of life.

Yes, they not getting it in cash from them businesses .

But they can from pensions, stealing or simply running a farm not under the eye of the taxman.

Cash is still a big king, and most transactors, (from contractors to solicitors) including other farmers selling bales will tend to do a better deal for hard cash.

Cost me over €40 a bale to make this year. I reckon closer to €45.

I've costed my silage at €36 per bale to make and stack in the yard, and that's not including my own labour for spreading and drawing in the bales.

If the silage is of good quality i would expect to pay €40+ and i would'nt consider that dear either.

But that's my silage, what you are buying maybe different, how much bag and slurry did it get? Bailed dry or wet? Chopped or not? Double wrapped of not? How many are you buying from him?

If i was selling silage i would try and do a better deal to a man buying 100 bales that a man buying 2?

€25-€50 a bale is the range, bad stuff to top quality.

It's impossible to give one single answer.

Everyplace has a different description of good silage. Early September silages poorly fertlized 30 is probably plenty for it

I bought silage a few year back but bought pit silage as I knew what I was getting. It was only 4km away so I could get few ton at a time for the 60 odd stores I winter. Got it for about 3 weeks or so. Bale's are tricky to buy as you don't know what you are getting. A neighbor got about 50 Bale's last spring off me as they got stuck. We both agreed they would replace bale's back in the summer which they did & it worked out well for both. I would only do that for a neighbor or someone I knew very well.

The hidden beauty of rural farming

Just off topic. A lot of my bales on top have taken in water. Cheap white plastic I blame. Anyone else with the top row suffering takinginwater syndrome?

Sorry replied to wrong thread

Non punctured. Baled very dry but some have a lot of water. Others are dry. You’d see a balloon of water at the bottom of some of the bales when I lift them. You’d be talking of a few gallons plus whatever is in the bales. I bought plastic that was cheaper than other. It’s not even in a box. Worked ok a few years ago but not happy this year. I’d say they took in rain water in the pile.

Must be the plastic so, or maybe the plastic was over stretched when wrapping?

Have that issue too. I put it down to single wrapping that my contractor does. When plastic was cheaper he used to put a lot more plastic on the bale. Now I think its a 1 X 4 wrap which isn't ideal, there's more plastic used for a bag of meal than whats going on the bales.

Defo rainwater in mine too as it's clear like tap water not black silage water

I never knew any contractor to put on more than 4 layers unless it was requested and paid for. Generally I put on 5 layers on first cut if it is very dry. On second cut it's nearly always 4 unless I think it's going to be left over after the winter.

Am I the only one in this....if I want stuff wrapped I have to go and buy the rolls myself ? My contactor is a big outfit and I would be the one calling him looking for the bill.

I always bought my own plastic as well. Most contractors look for lads to buy there own. They usually only supply plastic to lads doing 40-50 bales or lads that pay cash for the jobs

I never saw a machine that didn't do a 50% overlap. Maybe the contractor was spoofing and only wrapping half with 6 layers and half with 4 and saying it was "5 layers". Even the first wrapper we had with the small rolls had the overlap.

Always 6 layers here. Even for the second cut. Might be a bit of a waste for the second stuff cut that you know will be used soon enough but for the few euro more you have the peace of mind.

Would usually be carrying over a buffer of anything from 200-500 bales as well depending on the year so you'd need the 6 layers for those anyway.

I do about 250 bales every year, I have never bought plastic or had an issue paying the contractor by cheque. I usually pay him 2k on his first visit around the end of May then on his last visit I pay the balance which could be as late as October.

He just told lads this year that he was keeping everything to a minimum as his costs had gone out of control especially with the diesel situation.

Might be different in other parts wrt supplying the plastic yourself but in fairness it's hardly worth the bother for 8/9 rolls of plastic when if the year comes fine I could be doing most in hay

I'm in Kerry and have always bought my own wrap.

24 turns of the wrapper however many wraps that is. 18 to 20 bales/roll. I had too many white patches using less wrap and it killed sheep on me so it's cheaper to just fkin do it properly.

*** From my earlier post about lads bitching about the price and not paying cash - that bollix is ringing flat out all day - and he'll be at it. My other customer is getting it at 35 fed bale by bale a mile away but that lad won't get a single bale for 60 if he paid it.

16 wraps standed and 24 wraps for wrap and half what the contractor dose here, anything exray going over gets the 24 wraps