# How cold to freeze baleage?



## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

So I've only made baleage for a few years now and on one could nasty windy day while I was freezing my arse off feeding cows, I got to wondering just how cold would it have to be and for how long would it have to stay that cold for a bale of baleage to freeze enough to be unusable until they thawed? This is a tube wrapper if that matters at all.


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## Toyes Hill Angus (Dec 21, 2010)

happens all of the time, takes dynamite to get the net wrap off! The greener the hay the easier it will freeze. But I would guess it is around 0 degrees F.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

I wondered, started in on a new row after a cold spell and it was facing west, the first bale the wind side was froze solid and so was a rather large percentage of the outside, next one was fine though. I placed the frozen end on the ground and used one of the spears on the loader to peel the outside off, they ate about 80% of it.


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## Erock813 (Jun 3, 2008)

If your bales are frozen that hard your putting them up too wet or they are spoiling in the line. If i have an area on my bales that freeze,theres always a hole in the plastic. We use netwrap and it doesnt even freeze unless theres an unusual amount of moisture.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Even the frozen one I had no problem getting the net off. Too wet is a very real possibility. Some of this was baled thru like 1/2 inch of standing water. It was either bale it or sit and watch it rain for the next week, which it did. Got about another 2 1/2 inches that week after we got it wrapped.


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## baddog201 (Sep 18, 2010)

We should have started a show called aqua baling thats pretty funny baling thru standing water i bet those bales were heavy i know my silage bales weigh about 1400 and they are only 45% moisture.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Yeah, this was mowed and was supposed to be clear till the next night then we had an about 3/4 inch of rain that afternoon. Next day actually tedded it then let it lay as long as we thought we could, then raked and baled. They were heavy enough I still could carry one on back like normal but only one on the front. Normally I can handle three bales at a time with my loader. Was hauling hay home till about one in the morning and dumping them, spent the next day wrapping hay in the rain. I actually had about about an acre or two I couldn't get baled as it was just too wet to even think about dragging the baler thru. That sat almost two weeks before it got dry enough to get in and get it baled.

The long rows on that field are getting no-tilled to corn this spring. Didn't look like I left any tracks but it was wet enough I damaged crowns every I drove with the baler or the loader went. Actually after loading the first load out we got our tracked skid steer and used that to carry the bales to the lane and used the tractor to load the trucks which we left on the road. Last spring was more than interesting, as I had several fields while I could get it baled no problem and get the loader tractor around no problem, driving the straight trucks into the field would have been a bad ideal at best.


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