{"id":186,"date":"2020-01-05T09:13:14","date_gmt":"2020-01-05T14:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/twillingatefarm.com\/blog\/?p=186"},"modified":"2020-01-09T10:13:14","modified_gmt":"2020-01-09T15:13:14","slug":"186","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/twillingatefarm.com\/blog\/?p=186","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Well, here we are in January! Officially Winter with several days of single digit temperatures and snow on the ground. Usually this is when I start paying particular attention to both my wood pile and hay loft as a quick mental calculation, based upon current consumption rates, triggers either contentment or concern.<\/p>\n\n\n

continue reading \u25bc<\/a><\/span>\n

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The past several Summers have not been kind to the local dry bale hay farmers. Long, wet Springs and sporadic showers arising within very short spells of decent baling weather has driven those dry bale prices to outrageous levels. Late Fall pricing at our local farm store was over $10 per bale for first cut hay. Second was obviously higher and, with greater demand due to the abundance of horses and \u2018pet\u2018 goats, nearly impossible to obtain in satisfactory quantity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For many small\nfarms, turning to baleage rounds has provided a solution to the\navailability, storage and handling issues of dry bales. Baleage is\npartially dried forage, preferably 45-55 percent moisture, which is\nbaled and wrapped with at least 6 layers of 1 mil plastic. Rounds are\ntypically left out in the Winter grazing area, eliminating the need\nfor cover. Some advantages over dry hay include less loss during\nstorage, fewer weather delays at harvest, and faster turnaround from\nwhen the forage is down in both regrowth and time on the ground. The\nequipment changes are not significant but need to be considered. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the rounds\ntypically weigh between 600 to 800 pounds, an adequate tractor is a\nrequirement. A round bale feeder is also beneficial to reduce waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The process of\nfermentation in baleage is the key to nutrient preservation so once\nexposed to oxygen, they decay quite rapidly. Ideally the round should\nbe consumed within ten days to avoid waste. Our cows will each\nconsume about 50 pounds per day while the goats will each enjoy 4 to\n5 pounds per day. This will increase as the Winter temperatures drop,\nbut is a decent guide to determine if this feed alternative is right\nfor you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve paid on\naverage $50 in recent years for each round, equating to the\nequivalent of 15 to 20 dry bales. Since both cost and labor are\nconsiderations in our choices, consider this as potentially a viable\noption. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With that, we wish\nyou all a happy and productive New Year.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, here we are in January! Officially Winter with several days of single digit temperatures and snow on the ground. Usually this is when I start paying particular attention to both my wood pile and hay loft as a quick mental calculation, based upon current consumption rates, triggers either contentment or concern.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/twillingatefarm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/twillingatefarm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/twillingatefarm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twillingatefarm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twillingatefarm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=186"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/twillingatefarm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":192,"href":"https:\/\/twillingatefarm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186\/revisions\/192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/twillingatefarm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twillingatefarm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twillingatefarm.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}