Haylage Question

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Skipadeedooda

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Hi All,

I pretty much know the answer but would like other peoples opinions so I can be firm in m opinion. We have recently contrcated a farmer to take hay off our fields. We requested small square bales, as its been such a bad summer and I assume we were low priority farmer was late in cutting hay and decided to do half in big round bales of haylage and half in square bales of hay (in case we lost the hay). Turns out hay looks quite good!

When we went to field and checked haylage after it had been wrapped there were punctures in the wrapping and some bales the wrapping looked over stretched (if that's possible) and was starting to split. We spoke to farmer who said he's come and have a look. We tried to seal holes but there were so many so the long and short it that for 3 weeks now we have been asking farmer to come and look at these bales and he never turns up. My opinion is that we have lost the lot and all my horsey friends that use haylage agree.

Spoke to farmer last night again and said look its no use for the horses etc and he claims that it'll be perfectly fine and he'll come and check it today but in all his time this has never caused a problem and will be fine for the horses.

Obviously I feel he thinks I'm stupid and wants paid for it but I don't wish to be out of pocket. If its fine for cattle I'd rather he took it away himself and didn't charge us for the haylage making, however he doesn't seem keen to take it away. So I don't want to end up with 40 bales rotting away costing me a fortune.

Opinions please?
 
Sounds like your farmer didn't put enough layers of wrap round the bales which means the spikey stems of the grass have broken through. We always request 6 layers of wrap, this makes it more expensive but less liely to develop holes. I would think about opening one of the bales to see if any mould has grown on the outside ( probably not had long enough yet) and maybe consider asking the farmer to re-wrap over the top to seal. However this will be more expense so you may be wise to cut your losses.
 
If something wasn't what I'd ask for and what's more wasn't even useable, I wouldn't pay.

I can see farmers point in making haylage but he should have asked you first. It was not his decision to make. You asked for small square hay bales.

You suspect the haylage is compromised, therefore I'd refuse to pay for it, but since he was trying to help you out in deciding to make it, I'd say he could keep it to use or sell.

You still lose out because you lose the grass crop the haylage is made from. If you don't want to lose the crop then maybe offer half price for bailing the haylage. Since the farmer doesn't seem to want the haylage, he is then getting half wages for his work which he may find the best of the two options, and the gamble on whether the haylage is useable is yours. You could still lose but its a gamble, whereas if you let farmer have the haylage you definitely lose the grass crop.
 
I wouldn't ever use haylage bales that had been punctured or not sealed properly. The farmer WOULD say that it is ok but it is not his horses that will get sick! Some of them think horses are just cattle with manes and tails! Print off some official info from the internet and show him it. He can give it to cattle or something as they have stronger stomachs...and more of them!
 
Thanks all for the replies all very helpful and backs up my thoughts. Thankfully, I have enough good hay to see us through the winter so will feed the horses that.

A farmer along the road has offered to buy the haylage off of us which I think will be the best option as he is short on feed for his cows. So I'll just have to see what we get charged for the haylage and try and sell it to other farmer at cost price.

Don't want to make money out of it but again don't want it costing me either. We've sealed up holes best we can and will see what farmer will give us for it. As you say Sugar and Spice he was trying to help us but it didn't work and as being new / in-comers to the area I don't want to start rocking the boat.

thanks everyone x
 
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