Bean Straw

SHALER · Oct 20, 2015

Noticed round bales of bean straw around recently after harvest. What are these used for? Am thinking they would be low quality bedding and even lower quality feed....?

formenwhogrow · Oct 20, 2015

Quite the contrary as far as bedding goes. I find bean fodder to be excellent bedding. It is super absorbent, holds up good in a bedding pack, and shakes out easily (with a skidsteer). Its great for large bedded packs like hoop barns and big box stalls. I bale a bunch every year for this purpose and bale my straw in small squares to sell instead for wasting them for animal fodder. As far as feed goes, yeah, not much in there that's any good.

RN · Oct 20, 2015

Bean stover for cows and hogs is better than eating snowballs. A few soybeans, some moderate amounts of starch in leaves and stems mean some energy for the sows over wintering, some amino acid for protein with some corn in dairy cows. Many years back when fences were still in place, common for the critters to glean the fields of corn stalk, soybeans dropped by harvesters- the sows kept for the spring farrowing would do a good job of weed and feed, half plow the close fields that had soybeans while the cows would walk a little further to the corn stalks. Now the farm critters outside the Amish farms are couch potato's like city teenagers(Teasing Alert!), have to go out and bale up the last of harvest and bulk salvage feed for them. Used to use a JD14T or a New Holland for bean stover growing up on family farm, small bean bales easier to make than corn stalk bales- take off the scattering fan at back of combine, wait 2 days and bale. Sows liked it, some of the winter milking cows would get one bean bale to 3 hay bales and some corn in morning before getting 'udders' squeezed by hand when the snow banks were high. RN.

paul · Oct 20, 2015

It makes a nice mat of bedding. Kinda holds itself together. That can be a mess in some cases, and really nice in others, depending on your needs and manure handling tools.....

Paul

fastfarmall · Oct 20, 2015

We always used Oats straw for bedding, but the problem was cows and calves usually eat 20% of it.

coonie minnie · Oct 20, 2015

Awesome bedding. We round bale, and then chop with a bale chopper. It offers excellent footing for cows (think fresh cow, right after calving) and is much more absorbent than something like wheat straw.

If you can handle the stuff, there is not much better.

JMS/.MN · Oct 20, 2015

What all the others said, but usually they are for bedding, not feed. I liked corn stalks better...steers on corn/pellet diet needed the stalks for roughage. Also, soy fields have very little stubble compared to corn fields, so I"d rather return soy dry matter to the field, and take some stalks off the corn fields. Either way- material gets returned to the field as manure. Just a bit later!

4520BW · Oct 21, 2015

We used them for bedding out in the lot in the winter. Good place to calf! They even pick thru and eat some of it. Even seen deer digging thru the pile!

wijim · Nov 21, 2015

We make small squares and sell them for $4.00 a bale to the city folks!

tim52160 · Nov 24, 2015

Great post! I'm 55 and have and have seen and learned a lot but you can learn something new every day!

Bean Straw

SHALER

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formenwhogrow

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RN

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paul

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fastfarmall

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coonie minnie

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JMS/.MN

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4520BW

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wijim

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tim52160

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