# Sour smelling baleage



## Jimbob_walker (Dec 31, 2017)

Baled high moisture og and trefoil first cut. Weather has been horrible as far as rain. Would have liked to get more than one day of drying but weather prediction changed. Didn't check the moisture but I would think it was below 70 percent, not 100 percent sure though. I raked big windrows to cut down my bale time. Used a rotary. Had it in the dirt to take the heavy hay in nice windrows. My issue is, the hay smells similar to sourkraut and the very bottom of the bales smell terrible. Just the bottom couple inches. Cattle don't seem to go crazy for it like they normally do. From what I researched, the sour smells comes from to high of moisture or to much dirt in the hay. Do I need to b concerned with feeding them. If fed a few bales with no problems


----------



## bool (Mar 14, 2016)

How long has it been made? It takes about a month to settle down.

How well was it sealed? You need to keep the air out of it.

My feeling is the moisture content was probably too high. You can get away with higher moisture content for fine chop silage in a pit or bunker, but when baling it you need lower moisture content.

If the cattle have eaten a few bales with no problems, you are probably OK to keep feeding.

A feed test would tell you how nutritious it is.

Roger


----------



## Jimbob_walker (Dec 31, 2017)

It's been months since I made it. It was headed out so it wasn't very good quality to begin with. It just kept raining about every other day and the only way I could get it off was wet. Wanted to make sure I could get a second cut off. A lot of guys were just making first cut when I was on 2nd. I have breeders so I normally mix the lesser quality with good hay and grain. Just don't want to get them sick or worse with it.


----------



## pettibone (Jul 18, 2015)

I feed a lot of baleage and have had some bad smelling bales, my wife was out there while I was taking plastic off three bales to put out and 1 really smelled bad. She said they're never going to eat that it stinks so guess which one they ate first. Might smell bad to you but not to them?


----------



## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

There is a limit to just how far you can go with wet baleage. I learned my lesson years ago. Bailed second cutting grass hay over 73% moisture not knowing it was a Prime candidate for botulism. That kind of hay is probably safe in a TMR but if it is Fed free choice that could be problems. They say you can vaccinate for clostridium that would help.
20 years ago I rented a heifer Barn 10 miles from home and the family right next to it to raised about a dozen Black Angus steers.. he was going out of town for 3 weeks he said he went to buy some hay and he said he was looking for something real cheap until his came in. We had some wrapped second cutting grass hay that was bailed about 76% moisture and it was at full of lactic acid sour ,our cattle wouldn't touch it. I told the guy with the Angus for the price of plastic he could have it if he wanted to come and get it and he came for 15 bales he said it would work out great his wife could put a bale in the feeder with the skid loader whenever got empty while he was out of town. They weren't even through the first Bale and from driving by there everyday I knew the cattle were sick. I stopped and told his wife and she called the vet and he said they had botulism. I gave them some good hey to carry things over tell her husband got back. I felt bad I took our Chute back we have a portable one and help the vet run the cattle through that nd treated for food poisoning / botulism. 3 died in two days time and 2 never really got over it they weren't any good but the rest made it thru.


----------

