Baleage as a Feed Option
The use of baleage, also known as round bale silage, continues to grow across the upper Midwest on dairy and livestock farms.Ruminant animals do well with fermented
forages, and baleage offers an alternative to producers
with limited conventional storage such as upright silos.
Baleage production seems to have fi lled a niche for small to
moderate-sized operations of all kinds, regardless of species.
Baleage is forage baled at higher moisture content than
hay and then is sealed in plastic individually or placed
in a “sleeve.” The product then goes through a normal
fermentation process, and the producer has a number
of “minisilos” of baleage.
Advantages
Decreased drying time from cutting to baling
(hours versus days).
Increased potential for timely forage harvest.
Less mechanical handling at higher moisture and
less leaf loss.
Increased potential for higher feed quality (RFQ).
More manageable isolation of feedstuffs.
Trade-offs
Increased harvest cost per bale on a dry-matter basis.
Higher risk of spoilage if the plastic wrap is compromised.
Plastic disposal issues.
Transportation concerns.
Storage and handling
Storage and handling of baleage presents some problems.
Most of those problems relate to the proximity of the
storage area to the feeding area and making sure that the
equipment used to move the baleage does not puncture
the plastic wrap.
Economics
When one looks at the economics of baleage, we see some
other trade-offs. Brian Holmes, Extension specialist in
the Biological Systems Engineering Department at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison, recently completed
research on silage storage costs.
Mr Holmes compared storage costs for bunker silos, silo
bags, silo piles and baleage. His research looked at forage
systems for three dairy herd sizes (100, 200 and 400 cows).
He valued hay silage at $85 per ton of dry matter and
corn silage at $70 per ton of dry matter.
His analysis starts as the material is brought to the storage
structure. For our purposes, his analysis starts when the
bale is wrapped individually or placed in a tube.
The machinery costs in Holmes’ work included a 40-horsepower
tractor ($30,800) to operate the individual bale
wrapper ($16,670), a 105-horsepower tractor ($65,500) to
move bales and a self-propelled tube wrapper ($16,670).
The plastic cost for the individual bales was $8.35 per bale,
whereas the tubed bales were $4.94 per bale. Costs not
included in his analysis were road access, snow removal,
plastic disposal, multiple silo fi ll per year, harvest and
delivery to storage, and delivery to animals.
A study of his research shows that the baleage system is
quite competitive with other forms of temporary silage
storage.
The annual costs and capital costs are comparable with
other systems and, in many cases, they tend to be more
reasonable than the other systems.
They compete well as part of a comprehensive plan to use
baleage in combination with bunker silos or piles used for
corn silage storage. The type of storage base has an effect
on capital and annual costs.
The Holmes study compared stacking individual bales
three high versus the tubed bales, thus driving up the
cost of the base for the tubed bales, which helps offset the
increased plastic costs of the individually wrapped bales.
Transportation
Baleage transportation is a bit more complex. Most baleage
users probably wrap their bales on site near their feeding
area and have few transportation concerns.
However, a number of producers want to buy baleage and
have it transported to their farm. Several problems arise when we try to put “wheels” under the baleage for
longer-term shipping and delivery:
We transport fewer bales per load.
The bales weigh more because of increased moisture
content.
We are faced with increased costs for wrapping,
loading and unloading.
Conclusions
Baleage offers an alternative to more permanent forage
storage structures at competitive annual and fi xed costs.
Transportation and handling costs increase when we wrap
the bale, but feed quality improves along with flexibility.