Wholecrop baled silage

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

What date was yours sowed stonewall ?

Thought farmers had stopped this Stone Age practice. No wonder barn owls etc are nearly wiped out in this country

Sown some on same date in west.

I considered cutting last week because the grass for on top of it in pit is starting to mature but thought head was not filled enough so I'll give it 1 more week

Regret it now. Ground is ok but looks like no break in rain next week.

It's easier to bale straw if you follow the combine probably the same for wholecrop.

Got whole crop in today

reckon it yielded 11t /ac, just weighed the one trailer. All trailers were the same size

was a bit damp at the start but when they got out of the first field it was a nice bit drier

Lads swarthing crops with pickup headers on combines go head first as it feeds better and less loss.?

Its half the reason in the last few years belt/draper headers seem to have taken over as it’s usually the header gives up before combine in damp conditions.

The peas dragged it down if anything tbh, they grew along the barley and when that heavy rain came in pulled the crop down in spots

one field was quite bad but got a reasonable enough pick up of it with the header on the harvester

not sure on the liquid N, was a very dry time when we used it and thought there was much water in the grass plant to use up the N

but in saying that we got a crop of silage that yeilded 7 bales per acre after 6 weeks that got very little rain, we’ve cut the same ground yesterday for 3rd cut 28 days later and it did 4.5 bales per acre

No didn’t

was tempted to but there’s a good chance the satellite will catch you out if claiming the protein payment