Green Feed.....money maker or not?

[Sheepwheat]

Am i missing something greenfeed is hay?

Greenfeed is generally an annual crop put up as hay. Oats is most common, other cereals are used too.

[checking]

Hi, grassfarmer.

There is always more to the story! You misled a party who said they would never put up hay again, if they could get hay stacked in their yard for $40.00/ton.

Burning material! I guess there really is nothing like selling city clients a smokey flavored premium product. Yummy! LOL

[WiltonRanch]

Anyone have experience with making greenfeed using glyphosate to dry it down. Used to do quite a bit in another life when i farmed. Would apply chemical when it was ready to cut and let it dry down for 2-3 weeks. I cut it with a 25 Ft swather let it lay for a day or so and baled. Made some really good feed that tested up and the cows loved it.Made it much easier to work with weather problems. Barley or triticale worked best.So did red proso millet but you had to really pay attention to timing of spraying. Oats not so much as it tended to grow tall and rank and made poorer feed even with this system.

Yellowfeed you mean. Been doing that for years with good results. Oats makes lots of bulk but barley and wheat and triticale is higher tdn and more palatable. If I can make it work I like to seed barley on wheat stubble so I get some volunteer wheat. Spray 360 grams of glyphosate when grain is in soft dough. It’ll grow a week before it starts to die. It’s a minimum 2 weeks to 4 weeks depending how wet it is before you bale. Traditional greenfeed we cut it later cause if it gets rained on it doesn’t degrade as bad and it dries faster.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Surprised at how many people are suggesting oats. According to my cows, oat green feed is inedible. Can hardly force them to eat it as compared to barley. What is your secret?

[Sheepwheat]

Surprised at how many people are suggesting oats. According to my cows, oat green feed is inedible. Can hardly force them to eat it as compared to barley. What is your secret?

It’s what grampa did? Do you use a smooth awn barley?

[grassfarmer]

WiltonRanch, the yellowfeed may work for your own use but I know a lot of cattlemen that wouldn't buy it so i'd be cautious growing that to sell.

AF5, Probably comes down to variety and stage of growth at cutting. We've been feeding some real nice stuff this winter where they wasted very little. Very late seeded so fairly short straw, cut green, no fill in the heads made in 2016. It was 12.4% pro, 59% TDN. Excellent cow feed.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

It’s what grampa did? Do you use a smooth awn barley?

I only grow rough awn barley, because the deer and moose leave it alone, whereas they devour the smooth awn, but the cows still far prefer it to oats.

[WiltonRanch]

WiltonRanch, the yellowfeed may work for your own use but I know a lot of cattlemen that wouldn't buy it so i'd be cautious growing that to sell.

I forgot to mention that. Lots of guys see it and if it isn’t green they’re put off. Even though a lot of times it’s better feed than some green stuff. We have always had better luck with barley and wheat. Oats palatability varies so much. Put it up earlier it’s palatable but can lack energy and put up late it’s full of grain and unpalatable straw. Barley and triticale is more forgiving. Even a barley oat mixture is something to look at.

[makar]

the little greenfeed i did sell guys were pissed off because they had to bury mine under theirs so the cows had to eat to get it, how that computes to worth less than hay i must be dumber than a cow.

[blackpowder]

Ya, old boys around here used to put it up awful ripe.
Now, make export quality oat hay, and they clean it up.
In this country you'd need a fair amount of good equip per acre.
Used forage equip is shit.
Remember, cows are your salvage end users. At least that's how they're treated.
Always seem to be the lowest margin crop. Few cows left here.