The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Bright Raven on September 21, 2010, 05:32:40 pm
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Ripping open the black plastic a bit more I have found a lot of white mold and florets of fungus. It smells yeasty.
It seems to be quite prolific inside the wrap.
How do you suggest I proceed? Burn the lot? Salvage and re pack if possible?
What do you think? This is a bit of a blow.
Thanks
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why did you rip it open in 1st place? whats it to be fed to? if the bale has rotton you would know by the smell if its not sweet smelling was if you seal them with tape then they should not go moldy
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chuck it away or contact the person you bought it off
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it sound like that one has gone off, the others may be ok
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Thanks for your thoughts. The other two bails seem okay.
To reply to daddymatty, about two months ago and where I noticed some holes pulling in the wrap, possibly from birds, I sealed it over with tape.
Today I noticed that where I had taped it up mushrooms of stuff were bubbling up and pushing the tape up. Out of curiosity i investigated and ripped a chunk of plastic off in concern when I saw the extent of the contamination. The bails are my own, I sold the hay to a local farmer and kept enough back for my winter feed. A contractor wrapped it but it only seems to be one layer thick on this bail.
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Gosh,,, I hope the bails the farmer has from me are not contaminated too!!!!! Mine is for sheep feed, his is for cattle.
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you need more than one coat. you also could do with it under net.
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If they have done the wrapping, transport and have their own storage I wouldn't worry about their bales. Its got nothing to do with whats gone 'in it' more how its been wrapped and how the wrapped bales have been looked after during storage.
I dont know that much about it, but it seems to me that any bales contents seem to do this in specific areas when those areas are exposed to air. We have had loads of strange things growing out of bales here and there and it appears that its mostly due to damaged areas of wrapping or areas that dont have enough wrapping. Sometimes we can find areas that are salvageable but most the time it has spread and it makes its unusable. If its bought in we go for a replacement, if its our own its a bummer.
Ta
Baz
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As Neil from the Young Ones would say " Wow, a wet bum....., bummer, " Yes the farmer brought in his own contractor and transport so phew, presumably I am not responsible if his bails are mold mungus too.
I will try doing a salvage job at the week end when I have a bit more time. I will throw a tarpaulin over the other bails in the mean time.
Thanks Baz. One skin is at least three skins too few.
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Wrapping a bale to make haylage is done to start an anaerobic process, ie a fermentation done in the absence of oxygen. The appearance of mould shows that air has got in and the fermentation is unlikely to have happened properly, so what you have is rotted grass not haylage.
Haylage should smell sweet and palatable when it's cooked properly. In my experience a failed bale is usually a total loss. It's worth storing unopened bales off the ground and with netting or something to dissuade birds and cats from breaking the seal.
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burn it and check any animal that could of eaten it
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The duff bale should go on the compost heap. You do have a compost heap? Fleecewife's DH.
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Oops! That was my OH seeing what's so good about this site ;D
It's true though that spoilt haylage is best composted and kept away from animals. We have been given spoilt bales by a neighbour to rot down - that had alfalfa and other things in but did make good compost. We didn't put it on the compost heap though, just let it rot down in the bale, having made lots of holes all round.
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We bale and wrap hundreds of bales of haylage, silage and hay.
As they are being stacked sometimes they get a rip in the wrap (we use 2 layers) and if air gets in during the fermentation period you'll get mold.
I go round with a big roll of black sticky tape, bought specifically for the job and tape up any holes.
If theres a not a lot of mold I feed to the bullocks, they pick amongst it, sheep are a bit more picky and will eat around it....and woe betide me if I sell a bale to the horse people, they throw fits !! ;D ;D
I find birds are a damned nuisance, particularly magpies, for pecking holes in the wrap, usually when its newly wrapped, and the wrap is shiney. If you miss these bird holes you'll get mold, for sure.