Rolling Acres - This and That

[Bruce]

OK, that should be easy to find. Only 850K people in the NY Capital Region, that is probably around 300K - 400K households.

 

[RollingAcres]

You have lots of time. You don't do anything anyway at your house.

 

[Bruce]

So true! Though yesterday was:

• Deal with getting trash and recycles out.
• Drive DD2 20 miles to work for 8 AM.
• Stop at auto body shop on the way back (conveniently on the main road) to check on her car which SHOULD be done today (as opposed to earlier this week as opposed to last week).
• Stop at diner for breakfast since the town clerk's office doesn't open until 9.
• Stop at clerk's office to pick up the town report so DW can read it before I go to town meeting Sat next week.
• Do morning animal chores
• Blow snow
• Take DD1 to her massage, go to lumber yard and auto parts store while she is there
• Bring her home
• Do afternoon animal chores
• Go get DD2 from work at 4:30.

And today is:

• Eat breakfast, take shower
• Do morning animal chores
• Catch cat, take to Vet at 9 AM for BP check (she wasn't happy but managed to not damage me as I pulled her out from under a bed)
• Read forums
• Put air in tires
• Eat lunch
• Leave at noon to take DD1 to the airport in Montreal
• Do afternoon animal chores
• MAYBE take DD2 to pick up her car but likely not, the place closes at 4 PM which means tomorrow will start:
• Take DD2 to the autobody shop to buy her car back so she can go to work. At least I will only have to drive halfway to her work. Didn't know they were open Sat mornings which is nice, otherwise she'd be taking my car Sat and Sun and I'd have to drop her Monday.

DW doesn't work Sundays, so I think I can fit stalking you in on Monday

 

[RollingAcres]

We do mostly haylage bales that are wrapped in white plastic

This was posted on @Mike CHS journal but I don't want to hijack his journal so I'm posting here.
@Wehner Homestead @farmerjan @greybeard I wanted to ask your opinions on feeding haylage to the cattle. I'm not familiar with haylage, other than they are baled/wrapped with a higher moisture content and will look up to read more about it.

• Do you feed them to your cattle?
• Is it better than feeding hay?

I'm also trying to find out if there's a way to prevent so much hay waste. My 2 cows seem to pull a lot of hay off from the feeder when they eat. The hay ended up on the ground then they laid in them and won't eat the ones on the ground. Well, the hay on the ground isn't a complete waste, I'd pick up the ones without poop and use them in the chicken coop as bedding, but still, seems like a lot of being wasted. I've attached a pic of our feeder, this is the only pic I can find that shows part of the hay feeder. DH welded that with some metal that we had around. Thank you all in advance!

 

[Bruce]

Can't help you there RA. I have noticed a lot more waste this year with the small rounds than with the small squares. The hay in the roll is almost like spun fiber, meaning it comes off in long sheets with a lot of overlap of the ends if individual cut material. I've taken to pulling it apart in smaller pieces before putting it in the wall feeder because when the boys pull on the end of a "sheet" a lot comes out and ends on the ground. That doesn't seem to happen much with a flake from a small square since the pieces are a lot shorter.

The chickens don't mind the boys wasting hay, there seems to be a lot of small seeds in the hay and they revel in scratching around looking for them.

 

[RollingAcres]

These bales are much better looking hay comparing to the ones we bartered for. So seeing so much go to waste just pains me lol.

 

[greybeard]

• Do you feed them to your cattle?

• Is it better than feeding hay?

Well, it is still 'hay', just baled and put up differently but no, I do not feed baleage/haylage and don't know of anyone nearby that does. It's just not very popular here because we normally have plenty of good sunny growing/cutting/drying and baling days May thru late August.

Hay rings always have some waste, especially on a new bale...the cattle pull/push the outer layer off to get to the better hay underneath and that whole outer layer ends up on the ground.
Is that the top of a standard height hay ring/hay square feeder or is it really as short as it appears to be?

 

[RollingAcres]

Is that the top of a standard height hay ring/hay square feeder or is it really as short as it appears to be?

That is the top. I don't know the height of it, I'll try to get a measurement later.

 

[greybeard]

 

[RollingAcres]

Thanks GB.