# Baling chicory



## mpr128 (Dec 19, 2012)

My neighbour grows chicory as a fodder crop for his dairy goats. I noticed a few days ago that one of his chicory paddocks he had cut & baled into small square bales. Something I hadn't seen before so I asked him about it.
As it turns out he used an outside contractor to bale it and it was too green, so when he cut open a couple of 4 day old bales they were cooking inside, so his biffed them all into his compost heap.

My neighbour is a recent immigrant from South Africa to New Zealand.

I've never encountered baling up chicory like this and did a quick search on Haytalk and couldn't find any match for chicory.

Has anyone else here baled up chicory into small, unwrapped squares ?

cheers, Shane


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Shane, I know chicory has value in certain instances and is more prized in NZ....but for most folks in the U.S., chicory is treated like a noxious weed. Most ag people here try to keep it out of their fields and pastures....at least here in the Southeast. I do know of some wildlife foodplot mixtures that include chicory in their mix.....mainly for deer.

Regards, Mike


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## hayray (Feb 23, 2009)

It would be a very hard crop to dry, even in very dry conditions. I cut chichory and hang it to dry because I usually drink chickory coffee now to cut down on my coffee habit. It takes days for the stem to dry. I always wanted to plant some for grazing, seed is very expensive. I just cut he wild stuff that grows everywhere. I know, you are suppossed to use the roots for coffee but that is way too much work so I just grind up the plant.


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