# High DM/low moisture haylage question



## MikeRF (Dec 21, 2009)

I was wondering if any of the guys on here that have wrapped hay at 20-30% moisture have done this successfully with a mature product.
All our first cutting is starting to get really mature with no real dry hay windows in the 14 day forecast. The Timothy is all seeded and alfalfa is close to 75% flowered.
I have wrapped younger crops at 25ish moisture with great results but was concerned with having to wrap what we have in the field now. Rapidly running out of options bearing in mind if we don't get this 260 acres of 1st cut done within a couple of weeks we will start to jeopardize 2nd cut as well.


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## hillside hay (Feb 4, 2013)

Move your moisture window to around 40% and you should be ok. Quality and palatability really suffer below that in more mature crops I've found.


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## MikeRF (Dec 21, 2009)

Thanks for that.
By quality do you mean that a more mature crop is more likely to mould than a young crop in a low moisture situation?
My problem is that as moisture rises beyond 35ish so does the botulism risk for the horse market which I am in the process of trying to encourage on to the product.
Mike


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## hillside hay (Feb 4, 2013)

No the RFV suffers as the moisture is not as evenly distributed in more mature hay. It tends to ensile unevenly because of that. I usually supply the dairy market so I was under the impression you were as well when you were referencing wrapped hay. There has been some talk on here of "sweet hay" for the horse market. I understand it is 24-30% wrapped hay but I would think that one would want to get it before it got too late for that as well. Maybe going a few extra wraps would keep the drier stems from poking through and letting air in. Sorry I couldn't be more help.


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## Bob M (Feb 11, 2012)

I wrapped some timothy a few weeks ago that had headed but not yet flowered. We baled it around 20% with the same idea for the horse market. Rain was coming and still had a few green spots. We put 6 lbs prop acid on while baling. I have the same concern about the hollow stems trapping oxygen in the bale. We have not opened any yet, will let you guys know how it works. We wrapped some 3rd cut mixed last week that got 4 inches of rain on them before we could get them wrapped. We wrapped the next day Not sure how well that is going to work either. We have had 20" of rain in June, very challangening.


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## MikeRF (Dec 21, 2009)

Sounds like you are having a rough time Bob.
Oxygen in the stem?! Hadn't thought of that but sounds logical. I think with this mature hay we may need to be closer to 30 to keep the hay soft enough to pack tight in the bale. I am going to try doing a small amount but not brave enough to go nuts as I don't have any cows to feed the mistakes to.


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## Fowllife (Sep 10, 2010)

I don't know if you remember this post from a few months ago.

http://www.haytalk.com/forums/topic/18821-haylage-for-horses/?hl=sweet#entry91113

I found this article interesting. If I remember right you are in Canada somewhere also? Maybe you could try to get ahold of this gentlemen & talk to him about it?

*http://hayandforage.com/mag/farming_horses_love_sweet*


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## hillside hay (Feb 4, 2013)

MikeRF said:


> Sounds like you are having a rough time Bob.
> Oxygen in the stem?! Hadn't thought of that but sounds logical. I think with this mature hay we may need to be closer to 30 to keep the hay soft enough to pack tight in the bale. I am going to try doing a small amount but not brave enough to go nuts as I don't have any cows to feed the mistakes to.





Fowllife said:


> I don't know if you remember this post from a few months ago.
> 
> http://www.haytalk.com/forums/topic/18821-haylage-for-horses/?hl=sweet#entry91113
> 
> ...


That was a pretty good introduction to the concept,thanks for the link. It seems that could be the answer on years like this. Might be giving out a lot of samples in the beginning getting people to swict over to the different idea.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

I've talked with a few guys this winter that bale and wrap hay in the 20-40% range.They say it works for them.They are putting preservative on it.They said cows love it and clean it all up.The hard thing is marketing it.At hay auction you can't hardly give it away.

One guy is doing some rougher grass hay and it makes it more palatable for cows he claims.

They were using Proponic acid ,but I think I'd use a preservative with some ozygen scavengers in it.Use up the ozygen and mold can't grow.


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## Cowdoc28 (Jul 2, 2013)

I would suggest using a good quality inoculant when putting your hay up. We bale around 18 to 25% moisture and do baleage from 30 to 40 % dry matter. The outfit I buy my inoculant has really helped us improve the quality and increase the rfv and rfq of our hay dramatically. I suggest doing some research on using prop as the price tends to be higher than inoculant and to truly stabilize and preserve hay the amount truly needed will turn cattle and horses away and stimulate the growth of aflatoxins. If you have any questions let me know and I will pass on the contact info for the guy who helped us out.


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## Bob M (Feb 11, 2012)

Cowdoc28, are you wrapping any of the hay that is 18- 25%. This is around the moisture range that I am using prop on wrapped hay. I would tend to agree that on the 30 to 40% D.M. baleage a good innoculant would be must better. I have not done this low moisture wrapped hay enough to know if I am correct yet. Bob


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## Cowdoc28 (Jul 2, 2013)

No I am not, we are running standard 4x4 bales at the 18 to 25% moisture and using EZ-Forage dry inoculant and it is working great, no burnt or black bales and our rfv is is running from 210 to 230. The bales we are wrapping running minimum of 40% moisture and we treat them with biotal plus II or the buchenri 500 when conditions are poor. We started following a program set up for the inoculant and fertilizer and putting up all premium hay now


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## Bob M (Feb 11, 2012)

I have used the biotal plus and bucherni 500 also on our silage


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## Haylageuk (Jan 21, 2012)

We as a year on year product wrap Timothy for the horse market. I aim for 65-70% DM and all the heads are fully emerged and even well flowered if season is late. Bale at full density wrap straight away. I use for Timothy 8 layers of 30mu film. If the product gets really over mature and gets highly lignified palatability does drop away so you may have to bale it 10% more moist then ideal but this helps palatability.

The product can be really nice we supply the Royal stud at Sandringham with about 100 tons a year of this type of product so have some faith.

Richard.

Dont raise your voice inprove your argument.!


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