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Wholecrop baled silage

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  • 14-07-2023 7:24pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 181 ✭✭


    Does spring barley make good wholecrop silage in round bales? What are the pitfalls? What would be a fair price per acre? Looks like this crop is lodging with all the rain.



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Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 2,062 ✭✭✭Who2


    I done it last year with barley undersown with grass and I found it a super feed, I fed it to weanlings and it really did push them on.

    I wouldn’t know what way to price it but I’d be of a lazier stance and probably just buy meal and feed along with silage if I wasn’t getting it at reasonable money.

    I have another bit to do this year but I have tried oats, peas and barley undersown with grass. It’s coming in fairly quick but the weather doesn’t look to be playing ball with me.



  • Registered Users Posts: 4,034 ✭✭✭Hard Knocks


    When do you sow? Do you go full reseed or min till?



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,062 ✭✭✭Who2


    The end of April sowing and likely mowing the end of next week, the barley and oats are nearly ready but I won’t have the peas ready unless they do some sort of miracle in the next few days.



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,062 ✭✭✭Who2


    Sorry it was a full reseed also.



  • Registered Users Posts: 201 ✭✭Omallep2


    Any problems with rodents and do you need post emergence spray?



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  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 3,816 Mod ✭✭✭✭Siamsa Sessions


    Sorry for another question - does it just revert to grass post-harvest?

    Trading as Sullivan’s Farm on YouTube



  • Registered Users Posts: 21,505 ✭✭✭✭Water John


    Rats are a problem and you would need to lay bait and keep topping it up well before bales arrive. Great feed tough. Not a clue on price.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,798 ✭✭✭mr.stonewall


    All back to grass, just the odd volunteer of barley

    Snap have similar in but set the May Bank Holiday Monday. Just peas and oats and a similar story cereal is ready, but peas are still filling. Lack of sunshine I feel hasn't helped since the peas have flowered. Hoping to pit it this week with a bit of second cut.

    Last year I did barley and cattle went stone mad for it. It was my 1st venture into tillage.

    I undersowed grass seed on both occasion, and what really struck me was the clover strike. Place is full of it afterwards. Great safety to a new reseed to have a companion crop in drought spells as it's cooler down low. Having a crop helps smother some of the weeds. I was listening to the tillage podcast a few weeks ago and they had an organic cereal farmer using white clover as a means of cover crop while growing a cereal. It's low in height, giving full soil coverage and N Fixation

    I have found it a good way to bring a bit of life back to silage ground an still have a good crop of something off it.

    Thanks for the reminder on the bait, must do it in the morning👍👍



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,062 ✭✭✭Who2


    True about the clover it’s the same here. I didn’t have much of a problem with rats but I had poison laid weeks prior to baling and kept the bait points topped up until feeding.



  • Registered Users Posts: 4,014 ✭✭✭GrasstoMilk



    Hoping to pit our peas and barley at somre stage this week

    photo of the grains is from yesterday- Sunday, little to no juice left in the grain

    photo of the crop is from last Wednesday, green look has come off it a lot since


    have the means of baling the crop ourselves but I’m not keen for the shear volume of them that would come off 20 acres



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  • Registered Users Posts: 21,505 ✭✭✭✭Water John


    I suppose pit it with 20 acres involved. Alt split it into two tens, weather isn't very favourable.



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,062 ✭✭✭Who2


    I see you still have flowers on the peas, have you many pods ? My peas seem to be way behind the barley and oats.



  • Registered Users Posts: 4,014 ✭✭✭GrasstoMilk


    Yeah the peas are very mixed, some good and a lot still filling out.

    contractor says they need the sun to fill but not going to get it and the barley will be fit before they are



  • Registered Users Posts: 285 ✭✭smallbeef


    @GrasstoMilk @mr.stonewall Do your contractors have a wholecrop header for the harvester or will it be mowed/grouped first? Made bales of oats and peas a few years ago and there was alot left on the field that the baler failed to pick up. It was only mowed and baled in 10ft rows though, if done by a big M into 30ft rows they'd be alot less wasted I suppose.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,798 ✭✭✭mr.stonewall


    Local contractor doesn't have a whole crop head or a cracker. I'm limited then for this and have to take a small hit on it. Don't want the hassle of bales and the vermin risk on 12 acres of it. Will have bit of second cut which will go on top of the oats and peas in the pit

    Will be mowed and grouped. The less handling the better. Still learning with it but serious bulk on it



  • Registered Users Posts: 4,014 ✭✭✭GrasstoMilk


    My contractor has header and cracker



  • Registered Users Posts: 21,505 ✭✭✭✭Water John


    I'll take a serious hit on it this year. Got caught with the drought. Gulls and crows took a lot of the peas.



  • Registered Users Posts: 18,656 ✭✭✭✭Bass Reeves


    I was told years ago the ideal time to whole crop pea's was at the flowering stage.

    Slava Ukrainii



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,062 ✭✭✭Who2


    I’ll see what it does this week, it’ll have to be cut next week, pods or not.



  • Registered Users Posts: 18,656 ✭✭✭✭Bass Reeves




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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,798 ✭✭✭mr.stonewall


    Knocked this afternoon, serious crop. Into the pit in tomorrow at some stage




  • Registered Users Posts: 4,014 ✭✭✭GrasstoMilk


    That can’t be right, sure the feeding is the peas, not the flower



  • Registered Users Posts: 18,656 ✭✭✭✭Bass Reeves


    I was told that about ten years ago by an agronomist.Now I used always cut at about 12 weeks and wilt for 24 hours on a good dry day. It's used to be raked into rows 3-4 hours before baling.

    I think the theory behind it is that the plant sends all the energy from the stems and leaves into the pods and that while you have more feeding in the pods that you have less in the straw. With peas you do not have the option of heading the crop.

    Slava Ukrainii



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,062 ✭✭✭Who2


    I doubt I’m going to get much of a break weather wise, I don’t really fancy mowing and baling straight away but it’s looking like my only option for next week.



  • Registered Users Posts: 21,505 ✭✭✭✭Water John


    Cranium here thinks it will gradually improve after Wed 26th. How's your patience?



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,062 ✭✭✭Who2


    It’s ripening so I’ve a balancing act, when it’s ready it’s ready and I’ll have to try make the best of a bad situation.

    I wouldn’t be spoilt with patience.



  • Registered Users Posts: 18,656 ✭✭✭✭Bass Reeves


    Ya it is a balancing act. I used to bale it . The stuff used to go sour if too wet when baked after being open longer than 36 hours. Because of this I used to wilt for 24-30 hours unless it was baking weather

    Slava Ukrainii



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,798 ✭✭✭mr.stonewall


    In the pit and covered. Was down for over 24 hrs in double swarths. Top was well wilted. Happy to have it done for number of reasons, it was on heavy ground and prone to getting marked, the weather and balancing the grain to not to be hard.

    As Bass said it's a real balancing act, made worse this year with weather. Last year was a pleasure with the fine weather



  • Registered Users Posts: 4,014 ✭✭✭GrasstoMilk




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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,798 ✭✭✭mr.stonewall


    1st of may. Just could not risk it any longer with the rain in the west and the forecast on the horzion, very heavy ground and not having a means of cracking the grai.



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