silage: To Bag or Not To Bag, What is the answer

[dfarms11]

what is everyones opinion? we have done both, not sure either is better.

[rip]

Have used both and if you have deer look out with the bags as the bucks love to rub their velvet off on the bags. We lost close to 1000 tonnes one year from deer and gophers coming throught he bottom of the bag. I feel that if youkeep the pile as deep as possible and well covered you will have far less spoilage at a much reduced cost

[dfarmer2000]

I have usd bagged silage for 10 years,for my size herd it is working very well. I use 8' diameter bags 150' long. It works the best for me if i have the bags on a hard packed surface where no weeds or grass will grow,this deters the rodents from getting into the silage. Bags have given me high quality silage with very litlle spoilage, the feed moisture is not as critical as compared to a tower silo and the bag prices cost less then the up keep of unloaders in tower silos. Disadvanteges of bags are plastic cleanup, but the feed is always fresh. We do not use enough silage every day to keep the feed fresh on a pile.

[avanderwell]

We put up silage in in-ground pits and this works great. Once the pit is there you always have it. The expense of a bagger and bags is huge compared when compared to plastic to cover a pit. As long as the plastic is totally covered to get a good seal with the silage there is next to no spoilage in the pit.

[dfarms11]

last year we did a pit of675ton , on 110 cows we used all of it plus about 400 bales of hay. this year we put up 800 ton bagged, on 110 cows thus far about half is gone. at this rate, we will have some silage left over, and also some hay. There is no doubt in my mind the quality is way better out of the bags since I have only seen about 2 buckets/bag of spoilage, I know we had more than that in the pile.Also I see our cows are in excellent shape this year.

[ricard]

Bagging is the answer because you have very littal spolige, it is chepper than a harvist store, and is very economical. Why pay extra $ for a foot of rot when you can spend a littal extra $ and have something feed able.

[tony]

We buy silage for $15.00 per ton in the field. If we get the job done by a custom operator that uses good bags and a machine that will pack properly it cost us about $6.00 per ton less to feed out of a bag.

A pit our bunker is more convenient but we just can't afford the luxury of the pit any longer!