# Who uses Hay Preservatives?



## downtownjr (Apr 8, 2008)

Many have experienced a wet year...never used preservatives,, but my brother and I are thinking about it in hte future...we have some hay that got a bit wet...hurt the quality a bunch. So the questions are Who uses, who is planning in the future, and who lives where you dont need them, and who has no plans to use regardless. Thanks.


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## greenacres (Jun 5, 2008)

I have been using NUTRI-SAVE 2OOO an enzyme preservative on all my hay as an insurance since I sell it all. It's a mix of enzymes and an anti oxi agent, and I don't bale any wetter than 18% if I can help in big sq, and sm sq I guarantee them so it is dry when baled with good color, premium price, and no complaints. Cost is around $1.60 to $2.00 ton. Been using this product for about 10 or 11 years.


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## Lazy J (Jul 18, 2008)

We have used FreshCut from Kemin and BalerPlus from Agresearch in the past. I like the FreshCut because it contains added antioxidants and a blend of organic acids, not just buffered propionic acid.

Jim


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## 4020man (Jun 21, 2008)

We have the applicator set up, we just need to get the rate set


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## hayfarmer (Nov 9, 2008)

greenacres said:


> I have been using NUTRI-SAVE 2OOO an enzyme preservative on all my hay as an insurance since I sell it all. It's a mix of enzymes and an anti oxi agent, and I don't bale any wetter than 18% if I can help in big sq, and sm sq I guarantee them so it is dry when baled with good color, premium price, and no complaints. Cost is around $1.60 to $2.00 ton. Been using this product for about 10 or 11 years.


Does the preservative you use have an odor and if so how long does it take to go away. Who sells this brand?
Thanks for the help


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## BCFENCE (Jul 26, 2008)

Ill have to say some of you probably think im crazy but ive baled all the way to 30% and its kept fine. Hay gotten up at 30% is better than not getting it up at all , at least i can still feed it to my cows, if it gets wet you might as well throw it away.
THOMAS


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## Production Acres (Jul 29, 2008)

Yep! when you lack 2 windrows having a field done and it starts raining, you don't really care - turn the preseravite on and don't burn the barn down. 30-40% will still make fancy cow hay - depending on what it was in the windrow! the horse hay market stops at about 20% for hay baled in the field, and about 18% for hay to be rebaled. We use Everfresh. If you use much product at all, it is generally the best price. Raymond Oates & Son out of MI sell it. He invented it "in 1956 and got it patented in 19 and 62". Very nice old man! They have a preseason sale going on now adn if paid for by Dec. 1 - depending on how much you buy, it is as cheap as $.755/lb. Their phone #. 517-286-6241 Thus far, New Holland adn Harvest Tech, Kemin, adn Heston, none have touched their prices that I know of.


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## BCFENCE (Jul 26, 2008)

Production Acres said:


> Yep! when you lack 2 windrows having a field done and it starts raining, you don't really care - turn the preseravite on and don't burn the barn down. 30-40% will still make fancy cow hay - depending on what it was in the windrow! the horse hay market stops at about 20% for hay baled in the field, and about 18% for hay to be rebaled. We use Everfresh. If you use much product at all, it is generally the best price. Raymond Oates & Son out of MI sell it. He invented it "in 1956 and got it patented in 19 and 62". Very nice old man! They have a preseason sale going on now adn if paid for by Dec. 1 - depending on how much you buy, it is as cheap as $.755/lb. Their phone #. 517-286-6241 Thus far, New Holland adn Harvest Tech, Kemin, adn Heston, none have touched their prices that I know of.


Ive got a harvest tech and buy from my new holland dealer, yours is cheaper than mine, I THINK I PAY 1.00, What about shipping cost


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## Production Acres (Jul 29, 2008)

depends on how much you buy and what the freight will cost. We usually try to pick up from the manufacter in atlanta, GA when we deliver hay in the atlanta area so we put it on an empty truck comming home. we do pick some up for other people as well sometimes. We are going to try and have a tanker come up this year and fill up our empty totes. We will see how that goes.


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## Production Acres (Jul 29, 2008)

We use Harvest Tech systems as well. Absolutely hate the touch screens - wish they would use ligetimate buttons on a keypad. Seems like ocassionally they come on on their own, sometimes you have to hit the "button"2-3 times, etc. Very much like the system! Have you seen the new tags that will go on the bale string that identify the moisture of each bale, amount of preservative used, field each bale came from, and date it was baled. Supposed to cost $.60/ea WOW! Quality control here we come.


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## BCFENCE (Jul 26, 2008)

Thats a pretty neat deal but what do you think about the 60 cents? Im sure thats not preservative because that varies but that would be neat
TTHOMAS


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## Production Acres (Jul 29, 2008)

no - the applicator that puts the tags on is supposed to cost $2500-3000. a scanner to read the tags will cost $800-1000. the tags are supposed to cost $.60 ea If you are putting 6# /ton of preservative on at $1/# , a 700# bale would have ~$2.10 in chemical. It isn't cheap, but sure is good insurance! And as we reprocess a lot of hay, knowing what is in a bale before you cut it back open would sure be nice.


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## Feed Hay (May 30, 2008)

I am thinking of giving them a call. Has anyone on here tried them? No odor and the price seems decent. I like the idea of not being an acid. What do you guys know?


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## haybaler101 (Nov 30, 2008)

I use Silo-King from Agri-King Nutrition. A dry product applied with an applicator. It has a blend of enzymes, antioxidants, and mold and yeast inhibitors. I can bale safely up to 25% in small squares and 20% in 3x3's and rounds. Silo-King not only prevents molding, heating, and dry matter loss, it also improves palatibility and relative feed value of the hay. Call Agri-King @ 800-435-9560


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## greenacres (Jun 5, 2008)

no oder, call 1 866-263-1551 and you will talk to Dr. Pitzen, Wooster Ohio
He can give you all the details
sorry about the delay


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## HALLSHAY (Nov 30, 2008)

I was sold a silo-king applicator and a pallet of foo-foo dust in a weak moment about a year and a half ago. When you have haying weather out here, there is no need for a preservative. There are times when hay is borderline, but the easiest way to screw up good hay is to bale it when it is tough or has too many green stems. In prime conditions, we can cure 2+ton swathed hay in 3 days. Sometimes when not so prime conditions arrive, we will have a few green stems after 3 or 4 days.

I have never put the applicator on our baler and right now I do not plan on doing so unless you guys convince me otherwise.

I don't know if I want to put more money into hay and run the risk of baling it with stem moisture. I definitely do not want to bale high moisture hay because I do not like the idea, and I need to control bale weight for my hay press. I don't make bales over about 1800lbs. After opening about 10,000 4x4's in the last 2 years, I have learned alot more about what makes excellent hay.

So the big question remains. Do I mount the applicator? Does anyone have any pictures of one mounted to a big square? Do you have any preservative nightmare stories?


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## anokes (Jul 30, 2008)

Hallshay,

Still a bit skeptical too, but i think the foo-foo dust works. Was at a farm show with a neighbor and he went to the silo-king booth and i followed him over. Needless to say we now have applicators on two 4910's. We tried it on one baler and did a couple of jobs i would have had to pass up because the hay wouldn't dry out. The stem moisture was high and the feed yard wanted it off the field. The bales set in the stack for three or four weeks before we loaded them out and i couldn't believe how well the hay kept. Out of 250 bales i saw one bale that had a hot spot on it. Then we ran it though out the summer and got the same results. What made me really think it works was when we were back down on the same customer for the last cutting. The hay was cut really immature so the stem was not hollowed out at all and of course it needed to get baled fast on account of rain. Anyways, we baled the hay and stacked it three weeks later the bales were loaded out and they weighed over 2500 pounds and were green as a gourd with no sign's of heat.

So i think it works and it is one more tool you can use to battle mother nature. The draw back is when that baby's on it is costing you about as much as is to bale that one bale of hay. It is all about your personal opinion, we used to use the liquid on 3x3 balers and when you plugged the baler with the appl. running you smelled like you were preserved too. I like the dry better because you don't have to lug around 55 gal drums or totes of product. My little girl can ride in tractor without wondering if she getting preserved too. If you are going to go bale you grab a few bags and go.

Nightmare: work all night and run six bags though the applicator and find out the flywheel wore the hose in two that the product flows though. sick, sick, sick Not only did you lose about 1000 bucks now you don't know whether the hay will keep. Needless to say check the hose often!

I will try to get picks taken of one of the applicators on the baler this week and post it.

Thanks , Austin


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## timford (Jan 26, 2009)

Hay preservatives have been around a few years now in Australia. They seem to work well in 18-24% moisture range, anything more than that and in my view the limit is reached. Like everything if it is not done properly, better of not doing it.


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## river rat (Jan 16, 2009)

I use the Harvest Tech automatic system on my small sq baler its not perfect, the touch screen and contrast can be frustrating but when you are baling along at 17% and you pick up a windrow by a shelter belt or fence line and suddenly its 22% its comforting to know your protected. Iv'e baled at 26
% just to see how well it works on some nice alfalfa. Other than the bales weighing a ton and using enough product to make you cry it worked. A bit hard on plunger shear bolts too. So far no comlaints from my horse customers on the preservitive, they really like the green color. Pays for itself when weather conditions determine if its going to be horse hay with preservative or cow hay without.


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## McKinney (Aug 2, 2008)

I use silo guard II. I have baled at 25% but like 15-20% seems to be ok.It costs 1$/#


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## hayfarmer (Nov 9, 2008)

I just purchased a Harvest tec preserative applicator for my NH-316 square baler. The directions say the mount the tip assembly 10-14 inches from the plunger, How far out do you mount the it? The picture in the manual suggest you mount it as far out as possible.

I bale bermuda grass hay. My plan is to use it as insurance and to help prevent the bottom bales on the wooden floor from molding. I average about 250 bales per hour, with bales weighting 50-55 lbs. I am doing the math right thats - 6.5-6.8 tons per hour.

Of course, the amount of bales per hour depend on field size(small odd-shaped fields take longer because you turn more) and windrow size. Please share "words of wisdom" on how to figure setting on preservative applicator.
Is there a "happy medium" that gives you the results you need. I hope I won't have to make constant ajustments to the flow rate to adjust from 250 bales/hr to 260 or 275/bales hr. Thanks for sharing you experience and expertise. I really enjoy reading the comments, and have learned a lot since joining this web site.
God Bless


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## PurdueBoiler (Apr 25, 2009)

Have great results with rpeservatives. I would recoomend if you bale alot and cannot wait for the weather to dry.


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## chief-fan (Aug 27, 2009)

I will be using a preservative next season. Looked at the havest tech system but didn't like the price of the applicator or the price of the preservative. Will go with a Gandy box and a dry granular preservative, very possibly Sila-Prime. Should run about $.10 a bale at 3 lb per ton rate. Lost about 650 bale this year to rain. That took care of the profits ! !


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## chief-fan (Aug 27, 2009)

4020man said:


> We have the applicator set up, we just need to get the rate set


Don't know if your using a liquid or dry but setting the rate should be about the same. The tech man at Gandy Corp. (Builds the dry applicator boxes) told me the best way to set the rate is to bale a ton of hay (or close to it) and time this operation. Then catch the preservative and run the applicator for the same amount of time it took you to bale that ton. Weigh the preservative, changing the rate setting until you get the amount you want to apply. exp: It take 33 small square bales to the ton on the average. Rate needed is 3 lb/T. If it takes 20 min to bale 33 bales, run the applicator for exactly 20 min and adjust the setting till you get the 3 lb. I would suggest to make settings at the 3.5 and 4 lb/T rate also so you have that information when you need it. Good luck.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

I use the Harvest tec system and love it so far. Like Production Acres pointed out, the touch screen can be annoying at times but I won't bale without it.

Use a Propionic blend from Nutritional Blending in New Paris Indiana. Can't recall the formula exactly right now, but it's like 69% buffered propionic, Acetic acid, citric acid then they add a caramel or apple flavoring to it to kill the smell.

Have made round bales at over 30% moisture and they kept. Just have to make sure your applying enough. Replacing the round baler this year and going to add a scale kit to it like on a grain cart.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Its been awhile since we visited this topic and I would like to see preservative applicator users give us a update and tell us some more about your dry or wet applicator and the product you use. Dry applicator users, tell us in detail about how your product is applied.

Regards, Mike


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## Joe Howard (Jun 6, 2011)

That would be great if more could input about their preservative systems. Looking at purchasing one this winter for my NH bc 5070. Got prices today for the units from a dealer in Holland, In. The manual Harvest Tec applicator is more along the practical price for me, compared to the automatic unit. 
I thought that one time I found that with the manual unit there was a foot clicker that you can purchase and hook up to the unit to turn the sprayer off at end rows and click it back on when baling again.....is it applicable to the manual unit?
Is the preservative that the NH dealers sell better/not as good as others available?
Located in Owensboro, Ky if anyone close has one mounted on their small square baler and wouldn't mind sharing an in person visit so that I could gain some more insight on these units, it would be greatly appreciated.

Anyways, looking forward to hearing more about the applicators and preservatives!!

Thanks,

Joe Howard


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## Gearclash (Nov 25, 2010)

> Is the preservative that the NH dealers sell better/not as good as others available?


If the ingredient list is the same, and in the same percentages, there is no difference in how "good" it is. We found that we could get the same chemical makeup for a lower price than what our NH dealer had been selling it for.


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## cdhayman (Jan 25, 2011)

We have a number of the hay boss monitors, and we ran the acid for a while, and it definitely does work. However, one of the things that we really did not like was the weight loss in the hay. We would bale 3-string bales, and at the time they would be around 140 lbs. we would put them into storage and after a couple months they would shrink down to 80 lbs. so we decided to get rid of the acid tanks, and the whole spray setup, but we kept the sensors and the monitors. we replaced everything with the silo-king setup and we love it. if you bale with silo-king, the hay will keep it's weight, and like was said earlier, the feed value will go up. so, we think that the hay boss monitors, and the silo-king applicators are the best combination at this point.


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## Bob M (Feb 11, 2012)

cdhayman said:


> We have a number of the hay boss monitors, and we ran the acid for a while, and it definitely does work. However, one of the things that we really did not like was the weight loss in the hay. We would bale 3-string bales, and at the time they would be around 140 lbs. we would put them into storage and after a couple months they would shrink down to 80 lbs. so we decided to get rid of the acid tanks, and the whole spray setup, but we kept the sensors and the monitors. we replaced everything with the silo-king setup and we love it. if you bale with silo-king, the hay will keep it's weight, and like was said earlier, the feed value will go up. so, we think that the hay boss monitors, and the silo-king applicators are the best combination at this point.


Was the moisture the same on the hay you loss 60lbs on as was the moisrure on the hay perserved with silo king? I have heard good things about silo king. This year the acid did not seem to work as well as in the past.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

I would like to hear more about "Silo KIng", the box applicators, and the "blower" system if anyone has this setup....

Regards, Mike


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## haybaler101 (Nov 30, 2008)

I have 3 of them myself. NH 570 small square, NH BR780A round, and NHBB940A big square. All have silo-king applicators and the round and big square have the blowers also. Work great, used silo-king since 2000 on small square.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Haybaler, which applicator box do you use on your small square? I noticed it said inlines needed to use the blower, so I guess I need to call Silo King and talk to them about the set-up. Have you penciled how many pounds of preservative that you use "on average" per acre for alfalfa for the entire seasons cuttings? Just trying to get a idea of how much preservative I would need per acre(approximate) so as to save on shipping. I know that moisture content determines amount of preservative, and I most likely would like to bale as soon as the moisture was below 25% for small squares.

Regards, Mike


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## cdhayman (Jan 25, 2011)

Bob M said:


> Was the moisture the same on the hay you loss 60lbs on as was the moisrure on the hay perserved with silo king? I have heard good things about silo king. This year the acid did not seem to work as well as in the past.


No, the moisture with the acid was definately higher, i mean we were baling some hay up around 28-30%. now with the silo-king typically we wont bale over 22-25%. so, you can't get away with as much, but that is ok with us because with the acid, anything we baled that was really high moisture ended up being feeder hay anyways, so it would have been just as easy to let it get rained on. now, the hay we put up with the silo-king is high quality and we are able to send it to the feed stores and race tracks.


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## haybaler101 (Nov 30, 2008)

I have the Poly Gandy on my small square. Yes inlines need a blower and you will want to go with the "Sidekick" model on an inline. I use 2 to 3 lbs per ton small squares depending on moisture. There is an Agri-king or silo-king dealer in the Knoxville, TN area, I can get you his contact info.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Thanks haybaler, I am frequently in Knoxville so I could use the dealer info at your convienence.

Regards, Mike


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## haybaler101 (Nov 30, 2008)

Vol said:


> Thanks haybaler, I am frequently in Knoxville so I could use the dealer info at your convienence.
> 
> Regards, Mike


Jack Gibbons 865-388-6329


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## carcajou (Jan 28, 2011)

cdhayman said:


> We have a number of the hay boss monitors, and we ran the acid for a while, and it definitely does work. However, one of the things that we really did not like was the weight loss in the hay. We would bale 3-string bales, and at the time they would be around 140 lbs. we would put them into storage and after a couple months they would shrink down to 80 lbs. so we decided to get rid of the acid tanks, and the whole spray setup, but we kept the sensors and the monitors. we replaced everything with the silo-king setup and we love it. if you bale with silo-king, the hay will keep it's weight, and like was said earlier, the feed value will go up. so, we think that the hay boss monitors, and the silo-king applicators are the best combination at this point.


How does hay baled @ 30% moisture lose 43% of it's weight in 2 months? Sorry i'm not buying this.


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## haybaler101 (Nov 30, 2008)

Probably lost 15 to 18% in water weight. The rest would be sugars that where burned off in the curing process and lost in the form of HEAT.


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## NDVA HAYMAN (Nov 24, 2009)

Mike, I had the Harvestec automatic system on my balers. I think Cdhayman hit the nail on the head except that I did not see the % of loss that he did. I also had complaints on the smell of the NH preservative and a lot of horses did not seem to like the treated hay. I baled some of the prettiest timothy last year and used minimal acid and they would turn up their nose at it. Very frustrating. Last fall, I went to the Silo King and had good luck so far. I took the harvestec system off except the monitor which I use for moisture. I have a reostat in my two baling tractors to adjust the amt. of granular product that is applied. You can call me if you want to discuss. Mike


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## Bob M (Feb 11, 2012)

NDVA HAYMAN said:


> Mike, I had the Harvestec automatic system on my balers. I think Cdhayman hit the nail on the head except that I did not see the % of loss that he did. I also had complaints on the smell of the NH preservative and a lot of horses did not seem to like the treated hay. I baled some of the prettiest timothy last year and used minimal acid and they would turn up their nose at it. Very frustrating. Last fall, I went to the Silo King and had good luck so far. I took the harvestec system off except the monitor which I use for moisture. I have a reostat in my two baling tractors to adjust the amt. of granular product that is applied. You can call me if you want to discuss. Mike


Mike, I put a small amount of prop acid on all of our hay, 4 lbs per ton below 16%. I have not had any complaints about about horses not wanting to eat the treated hay. We sell to some high end race horse trainers. Having said this, I am not totally sold on the prop acid. Did not seem to work as well this year on grass hay above 18%. I am only using the moisture meter on the baler and also know they are not perfect. This year I plan on drying some samples and weighing to check the baler moisture senors. In years past I did not have any heating of our hay but this year we had some moderate heating. Thanks Bob


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## NDVA HAYMAN (Nov 24, 2009)

Bob, I also am selling to race horse people and saw first hand how they reacted. I was shocked. It happened to 2 different groups of horses. As I said, it was really frustrating since it was pretty hay with low moisture and put up right. I used the Silo King this year and the horses love this hay. I know it's not comparable but I am sold on Silo King and will not go back to NH preservative. I like the color of the SK hay after curing. Looks nice even after some was put up around 20% around the edge of the field.


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## SVFHAY (Dec 5, 2008)

So many variables to consider on this. I bale small squares with a bandit with the intention of every bale making horse grade for sale. I have used silo guard, inoculants, various propionic acid brands and my cousin custom bales for me with the same bandit set-up with a silo king blower attachment. I had an early harvestec full auto system w/crop eye & star wheel sensor. Always have a second in chamber moisture sensor pad.

My conclusion is that if I were producing dairy quality, high rfv, high legume content for my own dairy it would be using silo king.

I use acid because I believe it is easier to apply accurately and manage across a wide variety of hay types and moistures. I fill out of a tote making handling easy. It seems to preform better on coarse grass mixes and its flow is not affected by humidity.

Different brands of acid state different blends, who knows really. My nose tells me some are less pungent. I now use Hay Fresh with good results and a less offensive odor.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

SVFHAY said:


> My conclusion is that if I were producing dairy quality, high rfv, high legume content for my own dairy it would be using silo king.
> 
> I use acid because I believe it is easier to apply accurately and manage across a wide variety of hay types and moistures. I fill out of a tote making handling easy. It seems to preform better on coarse grass mixes and its flow is not affected by humidity.
> 
> Different brands of acid state different blends, who knows really. My nose tells me some are less pungent. I now use Hay Fresh with good results and a less offensive odor.


Are you saying Silo King application (with a blower) is affected by high humidity?

Regards, Mike


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## cdhayman (Jan 25, 2011)

carcajou said:


> How does hay baled @ 30% moisture lose 43% of it's weight in 2 months? Sorry i'm not buying this.


well, you can think what you would like. It's no sweat off of my brow. but, that is why we switched to silo-king and we couldn't be happier. we only use it when we really need it and it definately is worth it. Also, we didn't like how corrosive that dang acid is, I mean it has a pH of like 4.0 or so, and that is not good on equipment. it will eat right through metal.


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## SVFHAY (Dec 5, 2008)

Vol said:


> Are you saying Silo King application (with a blower) is affected by high humidity?
> 
> Regards, Mike


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## SVFHAY (Dec 5, 2008)

Yes. Cousin has had problems if it is not cleaned daily.


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## NDVA HAYMAN (Nov 24, 2009)

All I can say is that I have had very little rusting during the time that I used the NH preservative.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

SVFHAY said:


> Yes. Cousin has had problems if it is not cleaned daily.


Dang....I hate to hear that....our humidity here is terrible in June-September....the Smokies(GSMNP) being so nearby put alot of moisture into our atmosphere. The smoke(haze) is humidity clouds.

Regards, Mike


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## Lazy J (Jul 18, 2008)

About a decade ago I worked for one of the largest manufacuters of Hay Preservatives. Their premier product was a combination of propionic and acetic acids along with several antioxidants. Unfortunately that product lost favor to the commoditization of "Buffered Propionic Acid".

I am intrigued with the oxygen scavengers/reducing agents that have takend favor in hay production lately, but am sceptical even though I have read much of the research.

We use preservative on much of our hay, it has been a lifesaver on several occasions when we were either fighting rain or high humidity.

Jim


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## carcajou (Jan 28, 2011)

Try mixing it 50/50 with fine floor dry, works well for us with humidity issues. We mix 3 to 1 with alfalfa seed when seeding fields for seed production.


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## NebTrac (Aug 12, 2014)

Bumping this back up. I'd like to hear some more comments and experiences on Dry vs. Wet. I was going for Hay Guard, but as of now I'm leaning towards Silo King and getting set up for granular.

So let me ask you guys that are still here what has changed in the last 3 years as far as your preservative regiment goes.

Looking forward to reading your replies.

Troy


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

NDVA HAYMAN said:


> Mike, I had the Harvestec automatic system on my balers. I think Cdhayman hit the nail on the head except that I did not see the % of loss that he did. I also had complaints on the smell of the NH preservative and a lot of horses did not seem to like the treated hay. I baled some of the prettiest timothy last year and used minimal acid and they would turn up their nose at it. Very frustrating. Last fall, I went to the Silo King and had good luck so far. I took the harvestec system off except the monitor which I use for moisture. I have a reostat in my two baling tractors to adjust the amt. of granular product that is applied. You can call me if you want to discuss. Mike


I had same problem. Customer claimed the harvest Tec proprionic acid had a "chemically" smell and she stopped buying hay from me. 
Honestly, I can also detect a smell that makes your nose burn a little. 
I'm not sure what to do. Not in the mood to spend a bunch of money to change to another sysytem.

Wondered in someone makes a more palatable liquid preservative other than Crop Saver that I can run through my Harvest Tec unit????


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## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

There are a lot of different brands of acid that could be run through the system. Maybe just switch the brand...


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

2nd year using silo king and I am sold on it except we seem to have an issue with it in a alfalfa and grass mix. The bales have not kept yet. Been great on grass that was baled in the 20%-25% range.Baled some clover that was in the 30% + range and some turned dusty and some were junk but nowhere near what they would have been without treatment.


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## paoutdoorsman (Apr 23, 2016)

IH 1586 said:


> 2nd year using silo king and I am sold on it except we seem to have an issue with it in a alfalfa and grass mix. The bales have not kept yet. Been great on grass that was baled in the 20%-25% range.Baled some clover that was in the 30% + range and some turned dusty and some were junk but nowhere near what they would have been without treatment.


Hey Chris, did you ever figure the issue out with alfalfa grass mix and silo-king? Thinking of adding this to my operation this year. Are you still happy with the results you get with the product?


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

paoutdoorsman said:


> Hey Chris, did you ever figure the issue out with alfalfa grass mix and silo-king? Thinking of adding this to my operation this year. Are you still happy with the results you get with the product?


I'm still very happy with the results. As for the alfalfa issue with it, haven't done any since that post.

The only thing I would like to change would be to go to variable rate to save some product. I keep it set at high levels to make sure I'm covered in any circumstance. 400 bales/hr @ 20% moisture for 1st and 300 bales/hr @ 20% for 2nd.

I would be more inclined to use it right along with variable rate, currently most 2nd gets treated as a precaution when we get to late Aug on and we run it in the shade along tree lines for 1st and 2nd for at least the first round til we know what the hay moisture is.


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## paoutdoorsman (Apr 23, 2016)

Do you have success with straight alfalfa, but not with alfalfa/grass mix? I was thinking my alfalfa is where it could benefit me the most by baling with a little more moisture or humidity to reduce leaf loss.


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

paoutdoorsman said:


> Do you have success with straight alfalfa, but not with alfalfa/grass mix? I was thinking my alfalfa is where it could benefit me the most by baling with a little more moisture or humidity to reduce leaf loss.


The ground I currently have is not conducive for growing alfalfa. At that time I happened across a field and it was alfalfa/grass. Probably was a 50/50 mix. Only did the field once but based on the amount used and moisture reading it should have been good. Sorry I don't have any better information.


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