# preservatives



## sharpescovehayer (Feb 14, 2010)

I am in the southeast and am considering buying a preservative system. I hear about the Silo-King system and the propionic acid systems. I sell mainly to horse owners. Can I get some pros and cons of each and some suggestions on which path to choose?


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## John Anderson (Apr 12, 2010)

A quote I have seen many times when it come to custom operations " Determine what your customer wants and then provide that product to them!"

I would suggest that you talk to your customers and see what they want. Do they want hay that has been treated with acid? I know many producers do not want this. I have heard of loads being rejected due to acid.

There are applicaiton systems for both liquid and dry products that can apply both acid and bacterial. You just have to be sure to clean/flush the system between products (not a big deal)


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

Horse owners are some of the toughest hay customers to deal with! (I can talk---I've got 15 head.) I have 110 acres under production for horse hay. Some want pure alfalfa, some want Alfalfa/OG, some want pure OG, some want timothy...the list goes on and on. Some don't want proprionic acid, some don't care, some don;t know.

But the one thing they have in common is that they are all "experts"! (I can talk--I'm one!)

I use acid automatically applied on almost all cuttings unless I know it is really dry. I have high spots in some fields that dry faster, low spots that are tough to get dry. I follow the don't ask, don't tell principle when it comes to acid because most of it is gone after 3 months or so in storage.

I'd rather risk a little extra expense and the smell than a barn fire.

Ralph


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

I've never noticed a smell when loading the hay out later.

I have a article from one of Purdue's experts saying they highly recommend feeding acid treated hay.


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## Rodney R (Jun 11, 2008)

I'm under the impression that acid treated hay should be a selling point - it's going to make the potential less that the customer gets a bad bale, and it's less potential to get bad hay in your shed. For dry hay Silo King is a waste of time IMHO..... the name says it all.

Rodney


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Rodney R said:


> I'm under the impression that acid treated hay should be a selling point - it's going to make the potential less that the customer gets a bad bale, and it's less potential to get bad hay in your shed.
> 
> Rodney


That was pretty much the author's point that acid treated hay greatly reduced the chances of a dusty/moldy bale.

Interesting part of the article was this: If given a choice between treated and non treated hay, the horse will eat the non-treated first. However, if only treated hay was made available, consumption did not go down compared to the consumption of the non-treated hay.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

I can't find the original article, but here is one.

Alfalfa


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## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

Alfalfa

Unfortunately the article as written is not printer friendly due to the dominions of figure 1 & 2. No matter I got the job done.

I kept the information for Timothy as it and bermudagrass are much will test about the same.
Their idea of the normal range for protein, calcium and phosphate is on the conservative side.

For bermudagrass hay, if harvested with any skill at all, will be 12% CP when harvested at a 42 day interval. Their idea of the nutritional value of grass hay fits the information coming out of TAMU. I wonder if any of these University Troops ever look at current data. To have 7% CP bermudagrass hay required a concious effort to abuse the forage.

As for preservative Horses have been eating hay treated with acid for about 40 years. One grower in New Mexico most of his hay with a preservative to a Veterinary Hospital. 
A with a lot of hay sales the animals do not have a problem it is the silly clod with the money.

Horse owning hay buyers are both notional and picky, but when hay becomes scarce they go home with a big smile with hay that is rotted to the middle of a round bale. 
As I see it with most horse owning hay buyers, HERE, very few have enough storage to buy and store enough hay when the hay they want is available. HERE these buyers will not pay for the convenience of the grower storing their hay for them.


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## charon (Mar 3, 2010)

In response to Rodney R comments about Silo-King, I am a 35 year employee of Agri-King, Inc., the manufacturer of Silo-King, in the Sales and Marketing Department.

Silo-King was developed in 1968 for fermented forages, because of the success of Silo-King our clients asked "Does it work on hay?" After numerous trials, both by our clients and ourselves, we added applications rates of Silo-King for baled hay treatment.

Today labeled rates for Silo-King include not only fermented forages but rates for hay ranging in moisture from 10 to 25% moisture on small square bales and 10 to 23% moisture for round and big square bales.

Silo-King is a multi-ingredient treatment product researched to maximize the fermentation or curing process to provide quality forages that are more digestible.

Industry marketing surveys indicates that Silo-King is consistently ranked in the top five (5) of forage treatment products. Our sales data indicates that over 25% of the Silo-King sold is applied to some type of dry hay.

Please contact us at [email protected] with your questions and comments or visit our Silo-King web site at Silo-King® for information.

Thank you


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## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

I appreciate your authoritive explanation.

Your explanation fits what I have read. Unfortunately there are some with exuberant enthusiasm for the product with expectations well beyond the limitations. I suspect that unrealistic expectations has damaged your reputation.

HERE in Central Texas, Silo Guard and other organic preservatives is favored to extend the moisture (relative humidity) window that hay can be baled. The people who I knew that used a dry product found it gave them the ability to start baling (fully cured hay) an hour earlier in the day, when the hay was still tough from the overnight dew. 
Again HERE it is very common for the humidity to go from 65% down to 50% over a two sometimes as long as three hours. 
Though we did not fully understand the dynamics of humidity, stem moisture, and morning dew, we did manage to do a reasonable job of putting up hay.

I opted for the buffered acid for small square bales, but after a few years lost interest. For several reasons. 
The slightly damp hay did not slide easily on the first and second table of a NH Balewagon for one. 
Even slightly damp hay had moisture to dissipate. The loss of moisture allowed the bottom bales to loose shape and presented an interesting problem when it came time to load truck.

My solution was and is to limit the amount of hay to be baled each day to only as much as can be baled in two hours. 
Bale from 10 AM to Noon, CDT, and haul and stack in the barn from 1 PM to 5 PM.


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## Rodney R (Jun 11, 2008)

The big problem with ANY dry preservative is the extremely poor methods to apply it. The Silo King guys sold us a couple Gandy units - we installed one on each baler, and the hoses ran right through the top of the baler and into the feeder area, a maximum of 18 inches from Gandy to end of hose. The application rate could only be controlled with a pair of pliers, and a real good guess...... no such things as changing the rate on-the-go. I figure about half of it fell on the ground - dribble the dry stuff through the hoses so that it falls onto the hay in the feeder. There is so much turbulence in that area it was dissapated, but a lot of it had the opportunity to fall out. Any dampness and the Gandy box would plug, or the hoses, or both. I think the stuff was expensive for what it was, the application was far less than precise, and because of all of that the results were extremely iffy. Maybe there have been improvements, but it has left such a bitter taste in my mouth that I am not a fan.

Rodney


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