Thoughts on more wrapped bales

[CattleMan]

Straw bales are often wrapped by farmers that dont have the inside storage available for them IRL.

And technically it is possible to ferment straw into a kind of silage... It requires adding an innoculant and moisture to the straw just as it is wrapped, then periodically ammonia is injected into the wrapped straw to aid in the fermentation process... All in all it is very impractical, as the amount of nutrient gain available to the consuming animal is very minimal for the cost of production.

Wrapped straw bales also dont attract as many mice... Which can be a huge problem for farmers.

[Perbjorkhem]

Haylage works good for sheep. I used to feed my sheep with haylage all winter. Very nice to work with, smells nice and not so heavy as the round, silage bales.

[Illinois Farmer]

After corn harvest some farmers will take a rotary mower and mow down the remaining stalk. Then go thru and windrow them and bale that for cow/cattle bedding.

Apparently, the new modest horizon map you can bale corn stalks now. Unfortunately that isn't and won't come to console this year, but still is cool someone is implementing it.

[Nilt]

After corn harvest some farmers will take a rotary mower and mow down the remaining stalk. Then go thru and windrow them and bale that for cow/cattle bedding.

Apparently, the new modest horizon map you can bale corn stalks now. Unfortunately that isn't and won't come to console this year, but still is cool someone is implementing it.

Oh, is that what I was supposed to do with the corn stalks? I couldn't figure it out when I started this map the other day and didn't bother looking it up. Still getting myself set up but I'm liking this map!

[Illinois Farmer]

Very common practice around here for bedding cattle.

[DirectCedar]

Very common practice around here for bedding cattle.

How much stover per acre would you expect to bale behind a 200-bushel corn crop? 3 ton? I've never harvested corn but all of it that I've ever seen looks like a mountain of straw.

When I lived in the UK a long time ago we expected 2.5 ton per acre of wheat straw, from the part of the rotation that was baled. For this dryland prairie boy that seemed like an awful lot

[Illinois Farmer]

I honestly don't know. Some guys, combine it normally, then rake n bale. Some combine, mow, then rake n bale. I think each method would affect. When we bale our wheat, we don't even keep track of the tons. We just count how many we have.

[Dairydeere]

I don’t know much about straw because we buy all our straw. I’ve only been out for wheat harvest a few times, but most I’ve seen bale it right after the combine, and even one where the baler was attached to the combine. We don’t wrap any silage, we put it all in an open pit that is compacted with a tractor. Same thing with our alfalfa haylage. All I see of wrapped bales are some “marshmallows” in the NW corner of our state.

[DirectCedar]

I honestly don't know. Some guys, combine it normally, then rake n bale. Some combine, mow, then rake n bale. I think each method would affect. When we bale our wheat, we don't even keep track of the tons. We just count how many we have.

Do you run the chopper on the combine when you're harvesting corn? i.e. would you chop and spread corn straw, and then rake it before baling?

[Illinois Farmer]

Yes because it helps cut up the stalk.

[DirectCedar]

Yes because it helps cut up the stalk.

I should have said that I meant specifically when you are planning to bale the stover. You still chop that first, or do you just drop it without chopping like you would if baling wheat straw? Are corn stalks too long to bale without chopping?

[Illinois Farmer]

The ones I have seen is you chop it like you would normally when combining corn. That's why people rake it to create a windrow.

[Farmercaseih]

The chopper on the combine doesn't chop up the residue. The only things that should come out of the combine are the cobs and the husks. It is the corn head that chops up the actual plant.

[CowsGoMoo]

You could indeed wrap hay in 17 on base game, it would turn into silage. It usually, however, was not worth it. Unless you were already making hay or a map gave you a wrapper at the start, it wasn't worth the effort. All silage was the same so "haylage" wouldn't bring you extra money. Sheep could just eat grass and you could already wrap grass bales for silage bales to feed cows with less work and equipment, so rarely was it worth it unless you fit it into a role play, or like me just wanted to try it out.