# Low moisture haylage



## Bgriffin856 (Nov 13, 2013)

Getting started into some second cutting haylage we put in. Question is did we get lucky or is it possible to put it in almost dry enough to bale but with some moisture ? but not dry enough to bale though. It looks good and green still like it went in smells good kinda like dry hay but somewhat like haylage, slight vinegar smell. Its tall fescue, timothy and clover mix and some orchard grass that was moved and layed wide for four days in late September. Was very dusty when chopping and unloading. I thought for sure it woulda molded and spoiled or turned into charcoal. Right after we put the last load in we put a load of wet heavy green corn on it to pack it and get the air out, that probably helped. We don't put much second cutting haylage in so its kinda new to me


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

In what kind of silo?


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## Bgriffin856 (Nov 13, 2013)

Cement stave silo an old Madison with the red epoxy lining


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## Waterway64 (Dec 2, 2011)

It will depend a lot how well oxygen is sealed out. It is much harder to seal a lower moisture haylage and I would watch closely for mold. Mel


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## Gearclash (Nov 25, 2010)

> Right after we put the last load in we put a load of wet heavy green corn on it to pack it and get the air out, that probably helped.


And inside a well sealed silo, this likely saved your bacon. The hazard of doing haylage too dry is not getting it packed well enough, there remaining to much air in it resulting in mold.


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## Bgriffin856 (Nov 13, 2013)

Gearclash said:


> And inside a well sealed silo, this likely saved your bacon. The hazard of doing haylage too dry is not getting it packed well enough, there remaining to much air in it resulting in mold.


That was my thinking at the time. Put about 7 or so loads on it till it was full. Its packed quite well. The doors arent the greatest though


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## bensbales (Jul 18, 2011)

I work closely with a small dairy farm and we've seen that feeding dryer haylage in the winter does just fine. We just try to have most of it gone by late spring before thing warm up. I think the colder weather helps keep the face of the silo from reheating. Are you milking cows?


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## Bgriffin856 (Nov 13, 2013)

bensbales said:


> I work closely with a small dairy farm and we've seen that feeding dryer haylage in the winter does just fine. We just try to have most of it gone by late spring before thing warm up. I think the colder weather helps keep the face of the silo from reheating. Are you milking cows?


Milking 40 at the moment. Milk production is up 5 pounds a head or more since adding this haylage to the corn silage and first and second cutting dry hay and grain we were feeding. I climbed up and checked it out and its starting to smell better and more like haylage now that we have gotten into it more. Only a little white mold mixed in around the door which are like i said aren't in great shape and prolly leak some air. We put in some 1st cutting haylage to feed when pasture gets low in the summer and had some go in to dry and get real hot and make steam and smell real bad before. My dad has a thing for making haylage too dry. He kept saying we have to let this second cutting dry or it'll just be black and slimy and the cows won't eat it. Guess he was right. Looking at putting in more next year its different from making oatlage and first cutting haylage where you can mow and chop the same day if conditions are right.


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## bensbales (Jul 18, 2011)

Congrats to the increase in production. When trying to determine if the haylage is dry enough, we chop some, then take a hand full of chopped grass and and squeeze it tightly into a ball, about the size of a softball then hold the ball loosely in your hand if the ball doesn't expand then it's too wet if it expands some but remains round it's just right, if it expands and falls apart then it's a little too dry. I know its not very scientific but it seems to work for us.


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## aawhite (Jan 16, 2012)

From our experience, you got real lucky. It is dry hay that usually sets a silo on fire. If there is just enough moisture to start fermentation, and the silo is sealed, the heating action will dry it out further, and lead to eventual ignition. It will smolder until it reaches a door, burns thru, and then flares. We had 2 converted Harvestores and 2 staves for our 350 milk cows. We eventually abandoned the silos and bagged all our silage. We occasionally would fill the staves with corn silage and let it sit thru winter.

Our neighbor had a silo catch fire from putting up haylage too dry. Burned for almost 2 years.


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## Bgriffin856 (Nov 13, 2013)

bensbales said:


> Congrats to the increase in production. When trying to determine if the haylage is dry enough, we chop some, then take a hand full of chopped grass and and squeeze it tightly into a ball, about the size of a softball then hold the ball loosely in your hand if the ball doesn't expand then it's too wet if it expands some but remains round it's just right, if it expands and falls apart then it's a little too dry. I know its not very scientific but it seems to work for us.


Thanks for that tid bit. That's how we usually do test it but i never knew for sure how to tell when it was just right


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## Bgriffin856 (Nov 13, 2013)

aawhite said:


> From our experience, you got real lucky. It is dry hay that usually sets a silo on fire. If there is just enough moisture to start fermentation, and the silo is sealed, the heating action will dry it out further, and lead to eventual ignition. It will smolder until it reaches a door, burns thru, and then flares. We had 2 converted Harvestores and 2 staves for our 350 milk cows. We eventually abandoned the silos and bagged all our silage. We occasionally would fill the staves with corn silage and let it sit thru winter.
> 
> Our neighbor had a silo catch fire from putting up haylage too dry. Burned for almost 2 years.


Sounds like quite an experience. I suppose being in and environment with no air it would take awhile to burn/smolder


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## Bgriffin856 (Nov 13, 2013)

Our milk hauler has a small organic dairy farm and is kinda a grass guru you could say. He says we put it in at just the right sugar level. Im not sure though


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## aawhite (Jan 16, 2012)

It did take awhile. The silo would smolder until it reached a door, burn thru and the burst of oxygen would flare it back up. We followed bensbales method as well. We would also put really dry haylage on the bottom of the silo, and then very wet haylage, let it soak up the runoff. Same when cutting corn silage.


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## Bgriffin856 (Nov 13, 2013)

aawhite said:


> It did take awhile. The silo would smolder until it reached a door, burn thru and the burst of oxygen would flare it back up. We followed bensbales method as well. We would also put really dry haylage on the bottom of the silo, and then very wet haylage, let it soak up the runoff. Same when cutting corn silage.


Could you smell it before you knew about it?
Usually try to put dry stuff on the bottom and wet on it but it doesn't happen like that most of the time especially trying to beat the rain


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## Bgriffin856 (Nov 13, 2013)

Used your method bensbales and it held its shape and slowly expanded and fell apart so it is on the dry side i would say


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## aawhite (Jan 16, 2012)

Thin smoke tendrils gave our neighbor notice. For us, if it gets too dry in the field, we stop chopping and let it dry down for either baleage or dry hay. Usually this only happens on 3 or 4th cutting, with light hay that drys really fast. Our silage bagger and bale wrapper were two of the best purchases we made.


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## Bgriffin856 (Nov 13, 2013)

Must of got into some drier stuff has a hint of a burnt smell. I'll have to check it out tomorrow and Im gonna check for mold as i noticed some specks of white mold.

I wish i had a silage special baler and switch to balage. I think it would work quite well.

Used a bag last year and this year for sorghum sudangrass and corn silage. Works good very good feed quality but feeding with a wheelbarrow and shovel it takes longer going outside and wheeling it in


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## bensbales (Jul 18, 2011)

We put up ag bags too. They are kind of a pain but they do keep spoilage to a minimum . We got two small bunkers for corn, two upright silos, ones for corn to feed in spring to fall and others for grass , got a ag bagger and we can make wrapped round bales. It turns into infinite possibilities I'm just glad that's someone else's job to decide what we were going to do. sometimes we question are sanity lol.


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## Bgriffin856 (Nov 13, 2013)

Checked it out today and dug down some and it was quite warm to the touch. Had steam coming off it. No mold just around the door and has a slight burnt smell to it. Another day or two and a tedding it coulda been baled.... I think we got lucky


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## Bgriffin856 (Nov 13, 2013)

bensbales said:


> We put up ag bags too. They are kind of a pain but they do keep spoilage to a minimum . We got two small bunkers for corn, two upright silos, ones for corn to feed in spring to fall and others for grass , got a ag bagger and we can make wrapped round bales. It turns into infinite possibilities I'm just glad that's someone else's job to decide what we were going to do. sometimes we question are sanity lol.


Another larger upright silo and we would be good. I do think balage would be the way to go.


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