Haying season... hopefully and the frustrations with being able to bale

[tweaker101]

So its Sunday morning and I am working the net looking for information on hay preservatives and applicators as I would like to find information on these systems good and bad for both liquid and dry powder type applications. We have never used anything before but baling is getting more and more frustrating so I guess its time to look outside of the box... or at least my box lol


Any thoughts and stories are welcome.

thanks in advance.

[Horse]

Lots of wrapping going on around here ,but takes a bit of a crew and equiptment but seems like a good way to go,looked at perseratives yrs ago but was to cost prohibitave then, dont know now.
Had some oats wrapped ,the cows loved them,no waste but heavy to handle,just swathed and bailed and wrapped all done in a day,55 acres. Small bails I think $5/bale plus bailing $7 then I think.

[tweaker101]

Lots of wrapping going on around here ,but takes a bit of a crew and equiptment but seems like a good way to go,looked at perseratives yrs ago but was to cost prohibitave then, dont know now.
Had some oats wrapped ,the cows loved them,no waste but heavy to handle,just swathed and bailed and wrapped all done in a day,55 acres. Small bails I think $5/bale plus bailing $7 then I think.

We have some wrapping going on here as well... just harder to handle and deal with vs twine/netwrapped bales.. we also do a lot of bale grazing.

[farmboy1]

I run a Harvest Tech (http://harvesttec.com/ ) system and use buffered proprionic acid. Automatic pumps, on board moisture sensors, and end of row auto shut off. Had it for about 10 years now and it paid for itself in one year. I would not like to bale hay without it. The pumps start kicking in at 16% moisture.

[poorboy]

In 20% moisture hay, what does the acid cost per bale?

[farmboy1]

In 20% moisture hay, what does the acid cost per bale?

At 20%, I'm still at the low application rate. On a 4 x 5 bale, it comes in a bit cheaper than plastic- about $4/bale. 21-25 % is about 8/bale, and 26-30 is 16/bale. The thing I like about the spray system, is that you only spray bales or part bales thaat need to be sprayed. I did a tote purchase of spray this year which will lower my cost about 25-30%

[tweaker101]

At 20%, I'm still at the low application rate. On a 4 x 5 bale, it comes in a bit cheaper than plastic- about $4/bale. 21-25 % is about 8/bale, and 26-30 is 16/bale. The thing I like about the spray system, is that you only spray bales or part bales thaat need to be sprayed. I did a tote purchase of spray this year which will lower my cost about 25-30%

How much was the system when you purchased it?.. I like the idea of automatic just bale like always and the system takes care of the ugly.. I guess at a cost. So basically unless there is one hell of a rain event on the horizon you are not baling past 20%.

[farmboy1]

$4500 when I bought it. I added the end of row option later, which was an additional 700.

[Horse]

I was told you cant spray just the tough spots because the moisture migrates plus you are adding more moisture,my plan was to just spray the low spots or heavy swaths,but no dont work that way.

[poorboy]

The acid just keeps the hay from molding for 4-5 months while the bales dry down to safe levels. Important that you store these bales so the air can get to them and allow them to dry.

As long as you are getting good even coverage on the incoming hay, you should be able to only do the tougher spots. Would probably need the fancy computer model that adjusts the amount of acid on the fly according to the hay moisture, if you only wanted to do little portions of each round bale.

[Taiga]

I have the auto Harvest Tec. It sure sucks the fluid back, I believe as you add the preservative the moisture level goes up on the sensor, triggering it to add more preservative at times. Can’t confirm this, but that is my interpretation just watching the moisture readings as the pump turns on.
It is expensive for sure to apply the preservative, but does save the bale so you get the money back at least. I do see some bales that are extremely dusty. I think they went dusty instead of moldy due to the preservative.
Also, watch the bale temps as they go through their cooling cycle, they get really hot even if they don’t mold (creates the dusty condition instead). I definitely would not be in a hurry to gather and stack, let them cool in the field for a couple weeks.

[GDR]

I have the auto Harvest Tec. It sure sucks the fluid back, I believe as you add the preservative the moisture level goes up on the sensor, triggering it to add more preservative at times. Can’t confirm this, but that is my interpretation just watching the moisture readings as the pump turns on.
It is expensive for sure to apply the preservative, but does save the bale so you get the money back at least. I do see some bales that are extremely dusty. I think they went dusty instead of moldy due to the preservative.
Also, watch the bale temps as they go through their cooling cycle, they get really hot even if they don’t mold (creates the dusty condition instead). I definitely would not be in a hurry to gather and stack, let them cool in the field for a couple weeks.

Your experience dosen't really give a guy a good feeling about these systems. Bottom line dust=mold and heat=unusable protein.

We wrap bales here, not perfect system either. Huge plastic waste, rodent and bird damage. Other than it requires different feeding systems I think the best solution may just be chopped haylage in a pit.

[smcgrath76]

We use a Gandy applicator and a product made from wheat middlings. It has a bacteria in it and no acid or salts. We have baled greenfeed up to 25+ % moisture and will get some mold at those levels, but it is the brown tobacco type of mold that cows love. For baling at 15-20% moisture it works really well and we usually use a bit if we are baling alfalfa, so we can bale wetter and maintain the leaves. I will have to look up the product name. I always call it Pixie Dust but that is not the trade name. There are tons of those Gandys in our neighbourhood. The advantage of the stuff we use is that it doesn't rust out your baler and also doesn't restrict intake due to high salt in the feed.

[Taiga]

The modern liquid buffered propionic acids do not cause rust either. The solutions prior did but not the current products.
Definitely want to aim for dry hay, adding preservative is just a bandaid.