conditioners necersary for baleage??

c.w n.y · Jan 17, 2016

Do you need them? are they advantageous or a burden to leaves and the tractors power output . We are just making baleage and currently have a j.d 1360 with flails but are considering trading it for a wide swath mower with no conditioner. With the hope being that we will save a trip around the field by not having to ted because of the wide swath mower and we can run the mower with smaller tractors that are better on fuel and hay will be better quality with more leaves. will we be sacrificing anything by having a mower with no conditioner in a baleage/wrapped hay operation,

there is also literature out there that says hay will dry faster initally to the 60% range if you do not damage the plant because the stem and leaves can respirate out the moisture better then if damaged, if i understand what the literature said correctly! your thoughts??

JD Seller · Jan 17, 2016

IF your going to make all baleage then you do not need the conditioner. However if you do want to make some dry hay then your would be limited without the conditioner.

oj · Jan 17, 2016

I have a neighbour who uses a non conditioner 9ft disc mower for his baleage, the last few years he has cut one afternoon, takes the following morning and baled that afternoon. The first year he made baleage without a conditioner on the mower he ended up with hay as it dried so much faster than he expected

Gary from Muleshoe · Jan 17, 2016

Back in the day we baled lits of hay using a 9 ft sickle bar mower and a rake. Mow in the morning and bale after lunch. So no you don't absolutely have to have a conditioner for baleage.

Hayfarmer · Jan 17, 2016

In my area (central Washington State) guys generally sue conditioners but the hay is heavy and unless you crimp the stems it doesn't want to dry. We don't have hay like you guys are talking about though, generally 5 day hay is the best we can do. I opened up conditioner rollers on my JD 9 foot swather because they weren't very good and took more power to run. My hay isn't as hearvy as some others though. The swather lays the hay out pretty flat so I rake it into windrows, usually one and a half on first cutting and 2 on second. I use a fluffer before I bale. A lot of our really good hay goes to export and buyers want to see the stems cracked.

Brown Swiss · Jan 17, 2016

I bought a new disc mower last year with the intention to make mostly baleage but the hay dried so fast I made most of it as dry alfalfa hay!

IaLeo · Jan 17, 2016

It has been 60 years since I hayed. What is baleage? IaLeo

Tx Jim · Jan 18, 2016

(quoted from post at 22:21:12 01/17/16) What is baleage? IaLeo

Hay that's baled at high moisture then bales are wrapped in plastic so hay will ensilage.

RodinNS · Jan 18, 2016

I think a lot of the research on that subject was funded by the anthropogenic global warming crowd.... with the same reliability.

Why not save two steps and make better bales by just baling behind the discbine?

One thing I can tell you is that using a straight bar mower will generally result in heaps and clumps if you're cutting heavy crop... then you have to shake that out, rake it up and put it into a row that I find never makes a good bale afterwards. I much prefer to bale silage behind a discbine.
You will also increase the drying time if you lose the conditioner. There is absolutely NO doubt in my mind about that.

Rod

conditioners necersary for baleage??

c.w n.y

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JD Seller

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oj

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Gary from Muleshoe

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Hayfarmer

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Brown Swiss

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IaLeo

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Tx Jim

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RodinNS

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