Haylage making experts

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Wheels

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I am trying to get a cut of haylage off my field this year but I'm a total novice when it comes to these things. I have managed to find a local helpful farmer who limed the field a few weeks ago and can fertilise and spray along with organising the contractors for cutting and baling but he openly admits that he doesn't know the best time to actually cut and bale as he only usually does silage. He asked me at what point I wanted it cut and I don't really know.

I have 2 Shetland companions and one fairly good doer 16hh andalusian who will be in light work over winter so I don't want anything too good quality but needs to be enough to sustain them when all the grass is gone.

So, when is the best time to cut, do I let the grass go to seed? If so how long after that do I cut and how long before it is no good?
 
Cut as soon as you get a weather forecast showing 4 or 5 days fine weather! These days you need to take the weather when it comes - in an ideal world you would be best cutting just as the seeds are set. But grab it whan you can - a crop made without rain is far far better than a crop of the optimum feed value but had got wet. And line up your contractor as soon as you can - once the weather does come they are all flat out and will prioritise those they know and have worked for before. Get a definite booking - I found it better to let them do the whole lot so they had a vested interest in getting it right.
I wouldn't bother with lime now (do it after the haylage has come off) or fertiliser unless your grass isn't growing much. I found I was paying £300 for fertiliser to gain £200 worth of extra haylage, it just wasn't worth it.
 
Why did you lime the field?... not saying it was not a good idea but it is generally done in autumn and not in same season as fertiliser.
It depends on the field whether you want to put fertiliser on, at what rate etc, it should bulk up the grass and therefor the yield, but you dont want a lot of lush stuff, as haylage wants to be drier than silage. Exessive fertiliser will kill off clover and other herbs: it is best to have a mixed species meadow rather than mono species ryegrass as used for cows. [there are rygrasses which are used for horse haylage, these are stalky rather than leafy species].

If this is your own field, I would consider an organic approach as the horses are long lived animals.
There are a few companies who specialise in horse friendly grass seed and fertilisers, I would ask for their advice.
Re making the haylage rather than silage, I am not expert, generally you want the grass to be cut a few days later than for silage [stalky not lush] and before 4 days of drying weather, turn once or more and bag up.
It is essential to keep air out of the bags, do not allow people to play on them.
Bagging haylage makes the product more consistent, but is is not essential.
 
Miss L Toe said:
Bagging haylage makes the product more consistent, but is is not essential.
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Haylage MUST be wrapped - it is an anaerobic process which preserves the cut grass, and I'm not sure what is meant by bagging but I get mine wrapped 6 times round to ensure there are no gaps to allow air in.
Haylage takes a day or two less than hay to dry and turned maybe one time less, so it has a certain level of moisture. Leave that open to the air and it will just rot. Wrapping and big baling isn't cheap, if you have weatherproof storage and cost is an issue (not necessarily for OP here, but for anyone) hay baling, either large or small, is cheaper and easier to find a contractor with the equipment. Wrappers are expensive pieces of kit and not used all that much year round.
 
Broadly speaking, young growth equals more protein and mature seed heads means more carbohydrate because seeds store energy (needed for germination) as starch. Older grass has more fibre so you'll get more bulk but of lower quality.

Older grass is easier to make into hay because it is drier.

Haylage is made a day or so before it is fit to make into hay as the grass sap is what preserves it. Obviously, silage is usually made for maximum feed value for cattle (meat or milk) so it is cut earlier than for hay or haylage, usually when the seed heads are forming. Your farmer probably knows this but may not know what horses need.

As you have good doers, I think I'd tend to cut a bit later -- but really it is going to have to fit in with whoever is making it as they will not want to keep switching machines.
 
If it were me , I would be looking for a supplier of good quality hay or haylage to feed my horses over winter, it costs £25 to £35 [for a delivery of 10 bales] approximately. This means you have a good product at a reasonable price.
Once a bale is opened it needs to be used up within a week or it spoils.
With respect to your own grass, it depends on your acreage, but with small acreages and no contractor on site, you are in a weak position, as the contractors want to bale up large quantities in order to maximise profits.
You might be able to borrow a few sheep to graze your grass, as this is ideal field management , mixed with horses. Be careful if horses are not used to sheep though.
I agree with other poster that haylage is by definintion a bagged/wrapped product that lightly ferments, but round here the farmers call anything that is baled in round bales, haylage!
 
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Bagging (?) haylage is not essential !!!!!!!!

That is a frightening comment.

Haylage MUST be wrapped. It's not haylage otherwise. Just damp hay, waiting to go mouldy.

JillA has explained perfectly well.

It sounds like you need someone knowledgable in making haylage to avoid you being seriously out of pocket. Your local farmer openly admits not knowing how to do it so it will almost certainly result in a wasted crop.

Unfortunately you've left it late to arrange an experienced person to make it. I would think they are all booked solid by now.
 
Op something for you to think about, we let a local farmer cut out field for haylage, in return he sells us as much back as we need for half the price of anywhere else.
 
Sorry to take issue with you again Miss L Toe but my big bales are perfectly usable a month after being opened. But they are towards the drier end of the spectrum.
How late is too late? Well, once or twice (including last year) mine was done in early August. Not much feed value except fibre, but it fills them up, keeps the gut fermentation going so generates heat and just means they need a little bit extra in terms of protein, so I feed unmollassed beet pulp and alfalfa pellets. One of the benefits it that good doers (like your shetties and good doer bigger horse) can have ad lib food offered without coming out of winter too fat.
 
Thanks for the advice so far.

A couple of things, if I could find a supplier of good quality haylage at a reasonable price I would be doing that but I can't and the farmers here in Ireland all ran out of fodder so are even less likely to sell this year than last.

Again, if I could find a haylage contractor in my area I would do that also but alas all farming in my neck of the woods is dairy.

I am confident that the contractors will come as they will be working to my farmer friend who has 300+ acres so I'm not totally alone :)
 
TBH with the 2 little shetlands and a good doer i'd go for hay. Unless your going to sell it, then you'll have to work out whether you'll be making any profit after all the work. Contractors aren't cheap at the best of times either!
 
No it has to be haylage as it has to be stored outside and I also have allergies*relating to even the smallest amount of dust or spores
 
Wheels, for those of us making haylage in Ireland the process and timing can be very different to those in GB. I've been making haylage here for 10 years and have had to adapt my mindset from it's south of England one! :)

I'm surrounded by cattle men who make loads of silage and like to try to tell me what to do, but have now realised I won't listen to them ;) Our springs are late which means our grass is too, and is generally too lush and green in early summer for haylage. I always wait till end July or beginning of August, so I get a higher yield of "woodier" grass which I can then feed happily in large quantities throughout our wet miserable winters, keeping my horses happy and warm and not sending them through the roof with energy or having them standing around with nothing to do all day having only been given small amounts to eat. It also means the opened bales last longer, although I get through one every 3/4 days in the winter anyway.

I never fertilise my haylage fields other than with slurry every other year - it's lush enough anyway and I don't want a huge amount of early growth which would then mean I can't leave cutting as late as I want for fear it will rot out in the bottom.

It is extremely rare that we get enough days of unbroken dry weather (let alone sunshine) to make haylage the way I'd like (which would be to cut and turn and get it to almost hay condition before baling and wrapping) and some years the weather has been so dodgy I've had in cut and left in big rows and not turned it at all before baling, and it has been amazing stuff. (this caused outrage on HHO last year when I said it ;)). If you spread it and it gets rained on, you are stuffed. If it gets a bit of rain on the rows, you aren't.

OP you need to get your hands on green or white bale wrap, don't let them wrap it in black if you can avoid it.

The other thing about buying hay/haylage in Ireland is that the majority of producers do not understand or bother about the risk of ragwort in hay, and even if you ask the question you will be told that it has none in it (because that's what they think you want to hear) so even if it were in good supply, I'd always sooner make my own and know for sure.

OP at least you have a farmer who knows it's not the same as making "sillage" :D
 
Haha rowreach, that is a good start at least!

I would really like large square bales wrapped in green but that seems to be asking the impossible. But... What is wrong with the black wrap? I didn't know there was a problem with that.
 
Oh and thank you all for advice so far, my farmer dude did say he thought it would be another 5 or so weeks before it was ready and started to seed so he doesn't sound like he's too far off the mark
 
Black wrap absorbs the heat more than white or green, so the temperature of the bale fluctuates more. Reflective white or green will keep the haylage at a more stable temperature.
 
As purplerain says, the black wrap makes the bales too hot for haylage. You may need to start looking for your green or white wrap now, as a lot of agri places won't stock it. It's more expensive than the black and you need more of it but it is worth it in the long run so don't let them persuade you otherwise :) You can join me in a few weeks' time obsessing over 6 different weather forecasts that say 6 different things, none of which are right :D Last year we ended up cutting on the day of our County show - you should have seen me charging round the showground trying to round up the contractors who were all trying to have a day off :D
 
OH used to be an ag.contractor so has the haylage/hay lark off to a tee. He always baled a day off the grass being hay, then wrapped in green. Last year we wrapped round bale hay which allowed it to be stored outside but could then be used over several weeks without it going off. I hope to do this again this year.
 
purplerain said:
Black wrap absorbs the heat more than white or green, so the temperature of the bale fluctuates more. Reflective white or green will keep the haylage at a more stable temperature.
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Never knew that, it makes sense though. We put a net over our stack of bales anyway though.

OP if your horses are good doers I would leave the cutting until towards the end of July. We have even cut ours in August once or twice on bad years, and not had problems. I would also ask them to make it as dry as possible - almost so its ready to be hay. That seems to store much better and doesn't go off so quickly.
 
Wheels I just had another thought - don't let them cut it to close to the ground. These cattle boys don't like to waste a thing so they practically shave the grass off, not worrying if they get mud in the bale, but that would be disastrous for your bales and potentially for your horses.
 
FfionWinnie said:
Best haylage I've bought was black wrapped!!
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I sold some bales of haylage over winter and my clients were all raving about it. It was made in 2011 and wrapped with black plastic but with eight wraps. I've kept back 30 bales for my own use for next winter. So far only one bale with white mould that the rabbits had chewed a hole in. When I put a bale out, it will still be good at least two weeks later or even more as it is almost hay.
 
FfionWinnie said:
Best haylage I've bought was black wrapped!!
Click to expand...

Dry Rot said:
I sold some bales of haylage over winter and my clients were all raving about it. It was made in 2011 and wrapped with black plastic but with eight wraps. I've kept back 30 bales for my own use for next winter. So far only one bale with white mould that the rabbits had chewed a hole in. When I put a bale out, it will still be good at least two weeks later or even more as it is almost hay.
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If it's almost hay before it's wrapped, it doesn't really matter what colour you use. I expect though that Wheels, like me, won't be able to get it to that stage before the big black clouds appear and she'll need to bale and wrap it :)
 
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