Soybean Silage Bales?

[Anonymous-0]

I have an old hay field I'd like to spray next spring and plant to soybeans. I'd like to get this field back into alfalfa as quickly as possible. What about planting soybeans for hay and putting it up as silage bales. The ground would be clean and could go into alfalfa next fall then. Anybody ever put up soybeans silage bales. How do they feed?

 

[IaGary]

I would be more apt to plant oats and put them into silage bales.

Gary

 

[rrlund]

I greenchopped some one time that had a lot of broadleaf weeds in them,but never tried baling them high moisture. Cows ate'em OK greenchopped.

 

[Erik Ks farmer]

I agree with Gary, oats are inexpensive to plant and make good feed. Also you can plant them as a cover crop for the alfalfa

 

[kyhayman]

Its part of my regular rotation to use rolled and wrapped soybeans or sudex for a summer rotation crop. I try to double crop after alfalfa, wheat/rye/or triticale notil in the fall after the last cutting. Take it off in the spring and spray again or chisel plow and disc then plant either soybeans or sudex, or this year I drilled brown bag corn. Roll and wrap then back to alfalfa in the fall.

As to the soybeans, dont use the forage varieties like Tyrone to roll and wrap. Way too much stem. Williams was always my choice. I've been tempted to try some RR beans but with the seed cost so far I havent made it pencil. There are pros and cons. Pros good feed, cows love them, and usually modest seed costs. Cons takes a lot of plastic as the stems want to tear through, devil to cut with a discmower as dont flow over the cutter bar easily, and lots of leaf loss (by the time you get the stem moisture within 10 points of right the leaves are brittle).

 

[Anonymous-0]

What kind of yields tonnage wise do you get with the soybean silage? My thoughts were that if I used RR beans, I could get an excellent weed free seed bed after the soybeans were taken off. When do you cut the beans for optimum yield and quality? I was thinking mid-August?
Also, I"d like to know more about your "brown bag" corn. How did it work for you? Did you pasture it or silage bale it?

 

[johns48jdb]

if you plant beans you need to cut them with a mower conditioner. without cutting it with a mo/co the stems want dry and your leaves will fall off as happened to another poster. i wouldn't worry about any broadleaf weeds or grass growing in with the beans. they make hay too. also cut your hay a little higher than you normally would. higer stems help hold hay up off the ground where air can circulate better and will help keep it up off the ground should it getr rained on. this works well where your going to try to get a second cutting. the longer stems will grow back faster after being cut.