What to do with beans that will freeze Wednesday night????

Scott 730 · Sep 13, 2011

Well??? Any feed value in them?? Can they be cut and baled?? Any options out there besides the disc?

Brendon-KS · Sep 13, 2011

There are many fields of soybeans that have been cut
for hay in my area (~40 miles north of Wichita) due
to the drought. Just saw a semi being loaded in the
field with big square bean bales on my way home from
work today. It's probably heading south to OK and
TX like all the other surplus hay from around here
is. I would imagine that to make good bean hay the
crop has to be handled carefully so you don't end up
with a bale full of sticks and powder.

Dave in Tx · Sep 13, 2011

////Raised them for hay before there was a market for soybeans. Cut them just as they were starting to turn and shocked them. Dang good hay but was lots of work.

paul · Sep 13, 2011

What stage are they in? With the price of beans, and potential shortages, see what happens and combine them. If they are too green colored for the elevator to take them, put them in a bin, they often look better to the elevator in Feb or so - seriously, they lose a little green, and the elevator is more inclined to overlook a bit of color when it's not the middle of harvest & they are swamped with beans.

Doesn't help you if the beans are far from ripe, but best I got.... Could be in the same boat here, they keep lowering the temp a degree or 2 as tomorrow nite gets closer, less than half my beans have started turning.

--->Paul

HiPoint OH · Sep 14, 2011

Back in the 80,s when I was dairying, I put out ~180 acres of double crop beans after wheat. We had timely rains and they were doing great but we got a September frost just as the were filling. I got in touch with a guy that did custom silage bagging and the neighbor who usually did my chopping and started mowing. We got them done in 3 days and they made fantastic feed - tested 22% protein and the cows loved it.

jackinok · Sep 14, 2011

makes excellent hay ,but harder to dry than some.one thing to do would be just turn your calves in on it.be very careful though they can bloat in a hurry.best way is to just put them on it for maybe ten minutes first day,fifteen the second etc over a weeks or so time.sort of condition them to it so they get used to it.nitrate poisoning can happen very fast,but once a cow or calf gets used to eating it,and their stomach starts processing it they are pretty safe. you can sure add some weight fast.

What to do with beans that will freeze Wednesday night????

Scott 730

Well-known Member

Brendon-KS

Well-known Member

Dave in Tx

Member

paul

Well-known Member

HiPoint OH

New User

jackinok

Well-known Member

Similar threads