There have been considerable discussions on the grazersedge list on the
subject of placing bales on site and protecting with poly wire. This was
something that we really wanted to work since we did not want to start a
very hard starting tractor in the winter and we can get -20 F in Wisconsin
at times.
As it turned out, with our very small winter carry over numbers (typically
20-30 young stock), it has worked better than we could have hoped for. We
place the bales far enough apart so that they can be accessed from all sides
without interfering with an adjacent bale and close enough to a hot wire so
we can maintain a charge on the polywire which is looped around a sizeable
group of positioned bales.
The posts (mostly thin fiberglass) are placed in the ground in a prearranged
pattern so that when you move the wire, you can pull out the posts when you
access the next bales and still have a post in the "right" place to protect
the remaining ones. Normally, these posts can be pulled out but with solidly
frozen ground you can not put them in without drilling a hole with a battery
powered drill. So we mostly have it preset. But if you made an error in
positioning them, you can drill a few holes if necessary.
Janet McNally has mentioned that you can also insert the posts into the bale
itself, perhaps at an angle, so the livestock can not reach the hay to eat
it until you pull the posts.
The main thing is to keep the bales protected until the colder weather. We
like to do final placement around October for our climate. We plan to place
some of the them in the next few weeks but they will be so exposed for such
a long period that we plan to use plastic sleeves on those bales. Any
additional bales that we get will have to be stored in a pile (3-2-1) with a
protective tarp until we are closer to winter.
As was initially mentioned, the hay had a high grass percentage which should
have much better keeping quality than the usual alfalfa bales that we have
in our area. Alfalfa can severely degrade if there is much rain exposure.
You will have to accept ground contact damage.
Finally, you must use a protective feeding mechanism since the cattle would
destroy bales that are fed ad libitum with full access. We are so thankful
for the plastic ring feeders that are a fraction of the weight of the metal
rings. And they don't tend to freeze down like metal can do. In fact, I do
not think that we would do any winter feeding if we had to use the metal
rings. So far, the plastic has held up well. Some of the rings are over 5
years old now.
Are many of you folks using plastic rings? Have any found them to not work
well or have you been pleased with their performance like we have?
Sincerely,
Rick Williams
Misty Ridge Farm
Pastured Beef and Farm Produce
Viroqua, WI
www.mistyridgefarm.com
