Baling canola

[fcr]

lots of yellow fields here ,some are being cut and baled. What kind of feed value and will it have to be mixed with other feed stocks.I’ve heard different opinions.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

If there are no viable pods on it yet, then there shouldn't be any oil in the feed, it could likely be fed straight, unless nitrates or sulfur levels are an issue.
If it has seeds, then the oil content can be too high and their ruins don't work with the slippery oil so it has to be supplemented with roughage we fed straw and canola silage a couple of times now.
Apparently the bigger issue with bales or silage bales is the big course stems, they will poke holes in the plastic on the silage bales or they will poke holes in the cows stomachs supposedly.
The cows and the deer and the moose just love flowering canola. They were reaching through the fence pulling out entire plants and eating everything except the root and a few inches of stem this summer. And they weren't starving to start with.

[Sheepwheat]

I’ve read feed quality of leafy flowering canola very close to alfalfa.

[woodland]

Works fine and can be good quality. Just have to watch nitrates and it’s hard to dry down. Chopping is the best. Sure beats nothing………🍀

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Works fine and can be good quality. Just have to watch nitrates and it’s hard to dry down. Chopping is the best. Sure beats nothing………🍀

We cut with the discbline and it was nearly impossible to get it down into the high 60% range for silaging. There's a lot of moisture in there.