WHICH Is BETTER? BALE SILAGE Or CLAMP SILAGE???

One of the questions i always get asked is why don't you do clamp silage. Well in this video I visit another local farm that uses forage boxes to fill their silage clamp, A big thanks to them! I have a look at the benefits of both systems and why we use bales.

[@danielcunningham5052]

110% right George there's no one better way, it's just what works for the individual person. Both have their pros and cons

[@piffpuffpeng]

This was one of your best! I like it when you do this educational type of content. Thank you very much!

[@mikereekie4948]

Very informative George. Pro's and Cons on both methods. Cheers.

[@tonymckeage1028]

Great Video George, one of your best! I remember, one large farming operation talking about using silage carted from blocks some distance away! the unconsolidated chopped silage was very light loads of dry matter in the contractors trucks compared to baled silage which could be left close to the harvest point and carted on an on demand basis! thanks for sharing

[@davidcollingwood1262]

Having never done silage I’ve learned a lot from this video George. Thanks for this. Top man 🚜🚜😊

[@patkelly7999]

Great comparisson George, its really down to which suits a farms needs most💯👌👍🙏😎

[@fredrick3009]

I've gotta say this was really well edited and informative thanks for the knowledge

[@paulstorer6937]

Great video George looking forward to seeing you combining.

[@stevespack77]

Very informative, fantastic video George.

[@mrtrusty101]

That’s a very informative vid George, thank you. ❤

[@malcolmchapman3032]

your channel keeps on getting better

[@philgardener7018]

Another great very informative video thanks George

[@DJC995]

Hi George Nice informative video we always done bales Thanks again

[@deanfryers1407]

Great video George, horses for courses mate, nice to see the Deutz still on the wrapper,

[@ginggur17]

Nice insight George. 👍👍🇬🇧

[@allanmorris6324]

It's like choosing between a straight 6, V8, V10 or a V12. Different strokes for different folks. Very interesting video 👍🏻

[@GeorgeSaunders]

Good analogy 👍

[@terabyte1695]

George, great days on the silage, big team effort from getting the clamps ready to mowing,rowing up and the hauling etc, forager, and 5 tractors,jcb on the buck rake great days, but great kit and great info.😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😃😃😄😄😄😄😄

[@petelamps6055]

I still haven’t seen a wagon like those in person, we had a TA TEN X until it destroyed itself, we then got a JF. Great video

[@robhardingham6770]

Good content. Had the pleasure of using a 7530 a few times on a silage trailer before now. Nice grunt to it, especially because she had a manual gearbox :)

[@bradsyoutube]

Really good video, George. And I’m no longer going to use spiked grabbers for my wrapped bales in Farm Sim. 👍😁

[@robertdavies922]

Great video, George!

[@richardweatherald7745]

We do both mainly clamp for milk cows and more mature stuff for dry stock and young stock. Swings and roundabouts, bales, more plastic but no sheeting up which is a big plus. Clamp quicker and less plastic but it’s to sheet up which I hate with a passion. Also bales good for buffer feeding in summer as no clamp face heating up and going’s off

[@lukeconway3454]

Pay for the plastic and wrapping and see if you feel the same

[@summerfarmestates]

Very interesting video George

[@seeker1432]

Enjoyed this George

[@user-ld6ik5qm4m]

his is a super educational guide to the different ways of making silage George. I've never seen a self loading wagon working before; it was either trailed or self propelled choppers I'd seen before. . It was always bales i used to make in the past at home. Tubeline and single wrapped bales. Tubeline was handy for weather proofing hay and straw bales if you had no under cover storage for everything you had.. I also Tubeline wrapped straw for ammonia injection to be used for feeding. This was an excellent video to watch and learn about self loading wagons from. I n

[@GeorgeSaunders]

Thank you very much 👍

[@LordMuck]

Yeh but why don't you do pit silage ?

[@bobpaterson1845]

Because he does bale silage 🤔 feckn all of it 👌👌😂😂

[@GeorgeSaunders]

Ok, but why don't you do pit silage?

[@LordMuck]

@@GeorgeSaunders Why don't you ?

[@erhservicesltd8769]

😂

[@GeorgeSaunders]

@@LordMuck does putting my grass clippings from the garden in the wheel barrow count?

[@anthony342]

love the sound of a forage harvester in summer . mind you love a small baler sound ,

[@vincentwalker7134]

Can remember the forage boxes first time around they just didn't catch on. But now forty odd years on and they've taken off. A two man operation can clamp hundreds of acres with ease and very cost effective.. Good vid.

[@Pete68T]

I Did Silage Clamp work and Cutting Grass at 13Years Old With a 135 on a 400 acre Farm.After Watching this When you Think About All The Poeple Needed To do A Clamp And Also The Forage Box Not As Many Plus How You Do It With Baling That Could Be the Best Option,Easy For You To Do And You Can Sell Some if You Have Too Many.

[@farmerchelsea1905]

good that was george not that i understand much about silage but i do know more now good points aswell about what suits your system on the farm

[@Jeff-bg7pt]

I'm impressed with you running past the tractor 😅

[@bobpaterson1845]

Interesting video George 👍 as you said there could be a fair old cost involved in the other two options 👍

[@douggilroy1188]

Interesting and informative!

[@casto-]

Interesting look at both side George. I’ve only ever baled hay and a but of straw so silage is a different world to me 🤣. Think you’d have to go the European route to make full use of a forage box doing multiple crops 🤔 it would be interesting to know the price difference and man hours in both

[@kevinwillis9126]

Thanks George loved the vid sir... Take care...

[@johnplatt8369]

Brilliant vidio George....... I can see a lump of Green machine heading to your farm, no doubt about it the old John Deere looks ans sounds great,,,,, are you fancying one 👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@benblackwell8108]

Great vid George 👌 down here in Somerset there's a good degree of both pit and bales . Not many upright silos like in the states mind

[@jp18449]

Thanks for the video George! Very informative. Although I'm willing to bet a large sum of money that your next vid has some idiot asking "Why don't you have a clamp?"

[@svengranzow3702]

Hallo george Nice Film from making silage. The clamp silage you brought a spezial place and a lot of personal and technic and a lot of money for The place.the round bales silage you brought a Bale press and then Go. The Problem is the wrap Folie is a lot of this

[@averysenior6571]

That jcb you have George would look really good on a forage box!

[@SEPK09]

nicely explained.

[@outbackladas]

very informative video Regards from Down Under

[@erhservicesltd8769]

Great video buddy 👌🏼👍

[@GeorgeSaunders]

Cheers buh 👍👍👍

[@petercheesman6894]

Maybe a cost comparison video is needed George, i.e bale plastic and netwrap with labour machinery etc, versus clamp systems cost

[@bobcrawford2105]

Which system you use doesn’t matter it’s what suits the farm best that matters mostly And if you have your own kit like you have George for your system go when weather is at its best

[@johnhyde8892]

You can never have to much silage, because if you have a long winter you are going to need it.

[@terrytipperarythwaite112]

Theres a lot leaving the pit silage here for that same reason George, you're saving the fodder at its best and not having to save it all in one hit when maybe some of it wouldn't be fit. The clowns in the department here in Ireland have came up with a new regulation now though, unless the bales are on concrete with a proper run off, ye can only stack 2 high.

[@kieranosullivan02]

I think the machines have a lot to do with it too. Choppers pick up too fast, drawn to pit too fast, rushed silage all the way and half it is 💩 because of it. Bales you bale and wrap and if you like leave in field for a week before bringing in. Not as rushed at all. The 2 bale high thing, if they have pits previously they can put them there but is harder for those who always did all bales for sure

[@soloheadlad]

Really ive mine stacked 3 and a few 4 high lets hope bord bia dont knock me in 3 weeks for that😂😂

[@kieranosullivan02]

@@soloheadlad keep them away from the stack you just wouldn't know 😂😂 I find it crazy these new regulations can be suggested, come in and half the people never hear of it, it's easy enough to miss them

[@michaellorio9774]

re bonjour George encore une très belle vidéo bien explique , ici en France dans le pas de calais c est beaucoup ensilage de mais et du foin en ballot un peut ensilage d herbe , bon courage a toi pour la suite 😍👍👍👍👍

[@fredharrowven1040]

Hi George, Great video do you think this is the way forward with the new trailers and do away with the bail ?, well George you take care of yourself and stay safe and well.🚜🚜🐄👍👍⭐️⭐️

[@Mark_van_Leeuwenstijn]

A very good and informative vid George. Thorough enjoyed it. Would love to hear your perspective in the nutritional difference between using grass silage / haylage and maze. And I can see you getting a Deere one of these days. Seems you really like them. And I don't blame you. The 7530 is a real nice monster. Those yanks do make nice machines 👌👍

[@soloheadlad]

7530 is some tractor i pulled a wagon at silage for 4 seasons and it never missed a beat unlike d 2 massy and claas tractor that were in d fleet on d other 2 wagons. Great tractor d more i drove it hard the more she liked it and alway stayed going not even a sencer light came on. Used to get main john deere garage to do all services never used anything spurious on it. (Oil,air and diesel filters always john deere brand along with the oil aswell i think it makes a big difference in d upkeep of d tractor

[@joemcgarry6915]

George just a question, what condition are the bales of silage that look to be sitting in the water in your yard? Very good enjoyable video. Keep them coming.

[@soloheadlad]

Very true george since i took over d family farm i made all bales 500+ every year. This year my dad(d old boss) convinced me to make a pit so i managed to get all my silage ready together in may and we hired in d contractor. With all the rain in late july and August i ended up having to open d pit as our finishing freisian bulls were not meeting d daily weight targets off the wet grass so we had them housed by night on silage and meal and out by day. My silage pit is a mess at the front now as we weren't using enough when opened and it started to go bad. If id made bales i could just grab 1 and d bulls were fed ive my own wrapper and my next door neighbour has the baler we help eachother out. But i just got lazy this year and gave into the boss as bales r more expensive so i got the pit done without driving a tractor myself. Never again to much of a headache getting all d 57acres ready together for pit silage and d fact that i had it opened less than 7 weeks later.

[@elsisso7168]

You give a lot of information of both systems on this video, thank you. I have a question for you, you were talking about filling the pile in one go, i have they problem that i have a pile of 60 meters (maybe i put a wall on the middle one day), so the problem i have is that i have soo much work to do it all in one day, there is any problem if i take two o three days to fill the pile?

[@hettro-cv6082]

Great video! Why are the straw bales left out in the weather?

[@randyduyck6254]

We always baled our grass and alfalfa. Our corn we chopped and blew into silos for silage for the cows.

[@christopherdavies752]

It depends on what you have to your disposal and the means. It’s a complex situation that has its place !

[@sitandfish]

Bale vs clamp is like Green vs Red. Red is better, of course. 😉

[@GeorgeSaunders]

😂

[@wolfgangoberkofler2785]

Very true. But: what it is if someone (like me) does both? Questions over questions… 😂😇🤭 Greetings from south tyrol, the northest part of italy

[@philipasbury9173]

Hi George, doing the amount of bale silage you do , would you consider trading in the current model for a fusion 3 or 4 baler? Safe a ton of work surly.

[@johnhyde8892]

Do you put nets on your silage, ours have 4 wraps and they are baled and wrapped on a fusion with a wrapper pulled by a fastrack. I do have my own baler as well, but it will not do silage bales and is for sale ( 977) bales from new.

[@philiphall4805]

we switched back to all bales 3 years ago , now set up with a front plain mower and pottinger crossflow on the back , we mow and group , follow up with a fusion 3 plus with additive same day in many cases , started mowing on april 8th and feeding it straight back to cows , best fodder for milk production we have ever made , 21 protien , 73 d value , keep doing some when you have enough grass and weather allows , yes its a bit wet but they eat it better , park the mixer up and do not phone the corn man

[@billupstateny9151]

Not sure it can be done here in USA without corn. Nobody, say again, nobody here in the dairy business produces milk without corn .

[@ComradDave]

@@billupstateny9151 have a corntastic day

[@billbobby461]

​@billupstateny9151 pretty simple reason why though. Productive grassland has a poor survival over cold winters and through dry summers. Corn grows as much tonnes as grass in one season and has comparable energy. Piss poor protein though, which is where soybeans come in. Effectively its just what they can grow in most areas. If I could grow 250 bushel(5ton!) maize and combine it dry or high moisture, I would be doing it too. Corn silage is just to get roughage in the diet along with energy. Same as alfalfa for protein. But here I can grow 7ton/acre of dry matter grass at 12-14ME 17-20% protein, roughage energy and protein, I just can't get it dry enough or stored without souring that little bit that limits intake. If I could make it hay 4 out of 7 times we cut it would be the best feed in the world for dairy cows. Just doesn't happen.

[@guernseygoodness]

I do. No corn, soy, canola, beet pulp, bone meal, blood meal etc. Only pasture, Haylage, silage and some alfalfa hay.

[@lukeweetman8197]

I feel both systems work, it all depends which system works best for you as a individual, the only thing I would wonder is what made you go for round bales and not big square bales? George, as those will bale just the same and even wrap and stack tighter taking up less space

[@dennisenright9347]

More expensive baler requiring a more powerful and expensive tractor?

[@w056007568]

Is there any commercial operation that bales maize silage and is able to crack the kernels as it does so, at least in the UK?

[@eamoncummins8419]

How do you like d the McHale. Any particular reason you went for it.

[@michaeljane-uu7yq]

All my local farms do both I've even been lucky to be in a tractor whilst bailing

[@chrislovejoy8249]

Nice vidio George looks a bit damp in your part of the world 🚜😊👍

[@tinnie1835]

I do both. First cut in pit other bales. With first cut all grasess ripe grows equally, other cuts alfalfa grows faster and is mature faster than grass so i can adapt the cut to size of grass.

[@kieranosullivan02]

would you ever go to square bales? It would be less bales but I'm sure there would be a downside somewhere too

[@marcusolsson5506]

Its more old school to do it in a pit. When I grew up we had a pit. We picked up the grass with a trailed John Deere 3765 and two trailers. And for hay and straw we only did small bales.

[@rayneary2097]

Just wondering why when you changed the baler why you didn't go for a fusion

[@tubs1984]

Always wondered this. What is the additive on the forage box/forager? What does it do? what's it for?

[@tommurphy3544]

Great sound off 7530

[@BrettinFLA]

Which do you like better, the Pottinger or Lely wagon?

[@abbiejones1843]

Hiya George very interesting years ago they did a cost on it be interesting how much it would cost clamp & bales. I would say labour would be a big deciding factor. On clamp system. Would your cows milk any better on clamp or bales ? And another factor is you can sell your bales. If you wanted to . And take a odd bale to out lying cattle in the autumn. You can't do that with clamp unless you open it up .

[@richardinfield3860]

The cows average over 10000 liters with butterfat of 4.3% and protein of 3.2% which is enough without pushing them more so putting the cows under more pressure

[@robertstibz9506]

What happens to All the black plastic bale wrap after use ?and cost to have it collected. explain what you think happens to it?

[@Andy-From-England]

Have you seethe Heston stacker that's impressive

[@lol-vz8kd]

A fews of mine: I have used neither, but a balers (specialy wraper combos) seems more complex to opporate and maintain. And balers really only come in one size, unlike forage wagons, so a baler would be a small cost for a big farm, while big cost for a small farm. Bales needs more transportation and more plastic than a pit, which would be more costly over time. It's easier to be indepandant with bales. Pits needs one packers and one transporter. One can do both, but seems unefficent. From what I know, you must finnish filling the pit once started. While baling can wait.

[@jamesmccabe1702]

balers don't come in one size. who told you that bullshit?

[@hughmarcus1]

A baler is a big cost for a small farm, which is why all over Ireland smaller farms like mine just use a baking contractor. I hear what George says about depending on a contractor but my contractor is a neighbour. He bales all his own grass as he rents a lot of land & baling his silage gives him more flexibility than a clamp. As for having to wait, I’ve never had to. Even at the busiest times he’ll be there on the day I ask. He runs two balers & one high speed wrapper.

[@Rmac-eb2zb]

Been running lely Baler as 20+ year. Run 25 knives all the time. The bale will never fell apart unless your not putting enough in them. But your mchale Baler is a bit of the older model

[@billupstateny9151]

Opinion: depends upon the # of cows. A neighbor here has 1900 milking consistently, the pit is the only option. Take 100 cow farm, I prefer large square bales, easily stacked in the shed, no wrap required. YMMV 👌

[@billbobby461]

Do you mean stacked in unwrapped then sheeted?

[@FrisianFront]

Have been using silage silos for feeding my own cows started with 2 silos 1 for filling and 1 for feeding And baled hay for sale and to mix feed the dry cows and youngstock. Had 80 dairy cows then. I work together with my father in law now. Since my dad died . Together we have 250 dairy cows now 150 pcs lifestock. 3 silos for the dairy cows 2 for filling and 1 for feeding in the summer. 2 smaller silos for the dry cows and youngstock 1 for feeding 1 for filling in summer. Advantage of silaging in silos is that your silage ration is practically the same year round. You can calculate and prebuy the extra feed materials you need for an whole year and feed cheaper and easy. Opening up the clamp every pfew days and an loader with an redrock silageblock cutter for cutting and loading the mixer🤙

[@billupstateny9151]

@@FrisianFront Farmers living in the 21st century, the larger dairy folks, have abandoned silos, unless used specifically for shelled high moisture corn .Small dairy operations don't survive in the USA with exceptions of the Amish & Mennonites. Try feeding 2000 head out of silos, ridiculous. 🙈🚜🗽🇺🇸

[@FrisianFront]

@billupstateny9151 i'm probably a bit confusing. I'm dutch and we call an concrete bunker storage as almost everthing that holds feed an silo😬 I mean an concrete bunker storage in my previous post😬

[@ambrosemaguire2320]

Did you ever think of doing square bales of silage and halage as they wouldn't take up as much space?

[@wayneinnc5379]

Did you get your own farm now? Enjoy the content.

[@viralprimenetwork]

It's always interesting to learn about different methods. Watching now to find out which one you think is better! 🎥🌱We've sent you an email, we would love to connect and collaborate with you.

[@davidhall5130]

Do you not find bales take lot more mixing into tmr feeding

[@graemeroutley5170]

Depends on your farm policy.

[@adamholmes6493]

How many bales on average do you make

[@bwarey52]

I've gone to the wagon from doing around 1000 silage bales a year. The cost of film wrap and net wrap is getting silly and recycling and handling the stuff. If you have somewhere to put the grass the wagon makes far more economical sense when doing over four figures

[@geraldbeard856]

Thar forage box system is alright providing you don't have to travel too far from field to clamp also they had a light crop there so they were getting a acre or two in each load and could get in several acres a day where as if it was a big crop you wouldnt cover that many acres also theres the effluent you get from clamp silage.......if your close to stream or river the Environment agency go mental if silage effluent gets in the water course but it can with bales also if you bale it wet........ pro's and con's to what ever you do

[@bobparker3988]

I just wonder what developed first?

[@trevorsidley7697]

Thanks George. When I worked years ago we used to pump all the air out of the clamp (so 10 tonne per sqare metre pressure). Worked very well. Any idea why it's not done nowadays?

[@billbobby461]

Laziness and getting the suitable seal. What size were the clamps you did that with? It's a very interesting idea, read a little about the process over the last year. Claims made that it saved more protein from less heat generation in the early aerobic phase. I attempted a small scale version and it didn't ferment much at all, I only used a vacuum cleaner to pull out the air(all I had on short notice) and its didn't compact much at all. Resulted in little white mold patches throughout the small pile. I would like to attempt it again but with much greater vacuum.

[@trevorsidley7697]

@billbobby461 About 10m x 30m and we had 3. Walls (3m high) were simply soil excavated to make the clamp base flat and level. Always seemed better than silage in the concrete clamp.

[@billbobby461]

@trevorsidley7697 it should be better, honestly that's the largest clamp I've heard of being made like that. Can you describe the entire process so I can know what you did?

[@trevorsidley7697]

@billbobby461 scraped out the base, used the spoil as walls at about 60 degrees. Lined the floor and walls with plastic sheet. Filled with chopped grass using trailed forage harvester. Rolled between loads. Each night we sealed the clamp using a top sheet. This was joined to the bottom sheet using a plastic concentric double pipe. Imagine a small "O" inside a larger "C". Pump was an old parlour pump converted to be PTO driven from tractor.

[@billbobby461]

@trevorsidley7697 very same as the method I've been reading about. Yalland method or something, but they made much smaller clamps. So you still rolled it while filling? How did you get the grass in without damaging the floor plastic? Was the sidewall and floor all one sheet?

[@jakeluff8067]

How many cleenex did you go through, driving the 75? Your face and naughty when she started working. 😂

[@GeorgeSaunders]

A whole box!😂

[@timfagan816]

​@GeorgeSaunders hope you didn't throw the tissue out the window. The cows might get a taste for it.

[@PaddyGun]

The hubs on the 7530 need some yellow paint, something about the green ones make me feel uncomfortable

[@jamesmccabe1702]

that's stupid

[@cecilbates5423]

I make bales too, price of the bale wrap at minute is ridiculous.. makes bales very expensive

[@masseyman-oc2fe]

Coming from a buckraking man I wanna say forage boxes are horrid to buckrake from it’s usually longer chopped and don’t go in the pit as nice

[@dennisenright9347]

The decision between wrapped bales and a bunk silo come down to a question of cost and convenience. Bales have much higher cost for plastic wrap but you can do the work yourself at your convenience when the grass is ready, no packing required, you don't have to cut as much at once if you don't trust the weather or if some fields are ready to cut and others aren't. And if you see that a field is not as good a quality you can stack them apart for sale or feeding to dry or heifers. A bunker is much cheaper per tonne of hay stored, but really needs to a contractor to do it fast enough unless you have a lot of expensive equipment and the people to run them. Bales require fewer tractors and people. If someone has a field to do some distance from their own farm bales can be wrapped on site and brought home when convenient while chopping requires a lot of road travel between field and pit. Bales can be much more easily bought, sold or moved if a farmer has too much feed or not enough. One consideration for me that likely does not apply there is that I want my bales dry enough to not freeze even if winter is frigid, so i do my wrapped bales at a moisture level that would make a clamp impossible to pack properly What moisture level would you consider optimal for wrapped round bales?

[@peterholliday6229]

What you going to do when you can only stack two high unless you have proper concrete pad with effluent control 20:46

[@georgedoorley5628]

cant see the uk going down that direction ...

[@Rx37Legacy]

One topic you missed is round bales vs square bales. Why are you using roundbales on your farm rather than square bales? Cost is obviously one reason cause i know the square bales cost a fair bit more, but are there any advantages/disadvantages?

[@geraldbeard856]

i think a square baler is more expensive to buy also round balers are more nippy you can manouver them around better in small fields and round balers don't need such a big tractor to power / pull them

[@Rx37Legacy]

@@geraldbeard856 True, well George did pull the Claas Quadrant with the 4220, and they are about the same bhp as the T7's.

[@davidraynorsnow]

Enjoyed this can you come n pick up my dog hair ❤

[@muttgusse]

here in Sweden thoose waggons are outdated all is running bales or choppers

[@68diggerman]

Now day,s I would say it down to cost //tonnes to acre which is cheaper ,cost of moing blaring rapping moving bales labour cost all adds up. I would say it down to yields of crop

[@stephendleahy]

Here in Ireland you can't stack silage bales more then two high.

[@geraldbeard856]

why

[@Michael-8903]

Or you get yourself a Kongskilde chopper mounted straight to the wagon. Like a forage wagon but cutting like a forage harvester