A look inside of a wet bale

Bruce from Can. · Oct 21, 2014

Fed this bale to the cows this morning. Red clover second cut, baled on Aug 10 at about 8:45 pm. Wrapped them the next day. These cows have already been fed corn silage/haylge mix, so they are not very hungry . But they just can"t pass it up.Youay recall we had a full moon that night , and I took this last picture while I was baling this hay. Bruce

Hank ABAB · Oct 21, 2014

Nice looking animals!

Gene-WI · Oct 21, 2014

I'd be interested in seeing more pictures of the setup you have for feeding the bales. Are those baleage bales? Gene

Bruce from Can. · Oct 21, 2014

Yes Gene, Those are Baleage bales. This is a simple rig to feed with. Just a car with a cable winch mounted on it. The car runs on a I beam fastened to the ceiling., and running the length of the barn. I run a spear through the bale, hook the cable to the spear, and hoist the bale up. The end of the cable has a swivel , so you can spin the bale either direction to unwrap the hay, as you push the bale down the feed ally. Is this what you where looking for? Bruce

Brown Swiss · Oct 21, 2014

Looks like some good hay, I just started feeding my baleage hay a week ago and the cows don't want to leave it till it is gone. This is the first year for me to make baleage.

Adirondack case guy · Oct 21, 2014

Bruce,
That is a really nice head -to- head feeding system. Is that something you designed and built, or a comercially built system? Around here most of the stancion barns are tail-to-tail.
Only a very few stancion barns left around here. The majority of the dairy farms/BTOs have gone freestall and parlors.
Loren

Gene-WI · Oct 21, 2014

Yep, that's how I always thought would be the best way to make hay and feed. Make baleage and have some easy of feeding them,unfortunately I just had to ship all my cattle this summer. Milked for 34 years. Thanks for the pictures. Gene

Bruce from Can. · Oct 21, 2014

The bale car is a commercially built unit,I regret that I do not have the kind of skill and talent that someone like yourself has to be able to fabricate . Tie stall barns are still common here ,but are on the way out. Head to head and tail to tail are about 50/50. The trend now is going to voluntary milking systems. AKA. robot barns. We have 73 stalls, and a free stall with a robot to do the milking is starting to look like the way of the future. Will never pay for me to go this way at 53 ,but my son ,who is 27 has a lot of years to make it work for him.So we are looking , and would build for 100 or so cows. Just running faster and faster on the tread mill, like a rat in a cage. But what are you going to do? Bruce

JD Seller · Oct 21, 2014

Bruce: Good looking feed and some real good looking cows too.

I could not wait to get out of milking. My Grand Father did it and I helped on the weekends. It seemed like a factory job with out the benefits. He milked 20 head by hand. Chain ties in front of wooden mangers. Stainless steel milk buckets and three legged milk stools. Forked the manure from behind the cows twice each day. Loads of hard physical work.

I enjoy taking care of cattle but just not the drudgery of milking. SO I have brood cows and feeder cattle.

I would like to see your setup some day.

Mike (WA) · Oct 22, 2014

Neighbor here put in a robotic system- he says one unit is good for up to 75 cows- So it might be time for you to make the jump, especially if your son wants to continue with the dairy.

Bret4207 · Oct 22, 2014

Nice to see a dairy with something other than black and white! Still lots of stanchion barns down here. I don't see how you can deal with the filth of a free stall and get clean milk, but lots of people do it.

Texasmark1 · Oct 22, 2014

I have fed it too and they love it. Have no idea as to the nutritional value but I never had a skinny cow. Must ferment and make whiskey and they get a buzz.....aka drunk!

Mark

john in la · Oct 22, 2014

I showed my dad a you tube of the robot milker. He was in awe; but that is understandable since he is old enough to remember helping his dad milk cows then deliver said milk house to house with a horse and buggy.

I have heard 60 to 65 cows per robot considering 10% free time to give timid cows a chance to milk.
Add in the dry cows and you are up to 75 cows per robot.

It would be interesting to see how it pencils out. If you could lay off hired labor to pay for the 200k robot OK.
But for the small family farm with little to no outside labor it becomes a bigger challenge.
You have to use your now free time in other ways to increase efficiency to help pay for the robot because going from 2 to 2.75 milking's a day is not gona pay for it.

A look inside of a wet bale

Bruce from Can.

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Hank ABAB

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Gene-WI

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Bruce from Can.

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Brown Swiss

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Adirondack case guy

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Gene-WI

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Bruce from Can.

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JD Seller

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Mike (WA)

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Bret4207

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Texasmark1

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john in la

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